/lit/ - Literature

>>11555742
I go to Oxford, and by the end of my course I know I'll be well read and cultured, more so than I am now. But I cannot compete with my peers who went to Eton, Harrow, Winchester, KCS, St Pauls etc. They have had such a fuddy duddy education and they know so much.

>>11555754
What kind of school did you go to?

>>11555769
state comprehensive in the north of England

>>11555804
What do you intend to do after your graduate?

>>11555857
probably work abroad and/or in the foreign office. Depends also what my friends do because some of them are quite ambitious.

>>11555868
Ambitious in what sense?

Any opinion on the Jews?

Bitch I read Disgrace in a community college Eng. 102 honors class while I was still in high school via a dual enrollment program any and every goofball was in by their Junior year. If anything, American education comes up with some weird shit.

tfw when u have read T S Eliot’s The Waste Land, 18th-century satire, and inter-war poetry. Not forgetting modernism, metaphysical poetry and Milton’s Paradise Lost (without a visit to his cottage); all without having spend hundreds of thousands of dollars

>>11555935
>tfw YOU don't have connections in London to land you a comfy job after graduating
>tfw YOU don't belong to a network of "contacts" and acquaintances who attended the most expensive and elite schools in England and now work in the most respected jobs
>tfw YOU will never experience the glory of Glyndebourne, never dine at Blenheim Palace, never stroll around Oxford or Cambridge with your wealthy lover, never spend a relaxing weekend at your step-parents' sprawling home in the countryside of Hampshire, Kent, or Dorset
>tfw YOU will always be a prole, albeit a """well-read""" one

>>11555935
same. feels good desu

>>11555742
I make up for it by having a fully intact butthole

>tfw you went to one of these 'elite' public schools and know exactly how retarded most of the kids there are.

Don't worry, you didn't miss out on anything if you didn't go to one. Wish I was homeschool'd desu.

>>11555742

one of those lads is a slav

>>11555742
You’ve got the internet though.
T E Lawrence may have had an Oxford education and been fluent in Arabic and Ancient Greek but how much happier would he have been if he had access to shota hentai

>>11555742
I bet most brats educated at private schools are more worried about the purity of their cocaine than cultivating their spoiled little minds

>snaggletooth etonian gargoyles think reading is impressive
lol

>>11555742
>"We dived into everything – J M Coetzee’s Disgrace, T S Eliot’s The Waste Land, 18th-century satire, and on to inter-war poetry. We roamed with questions, exclamations, and a freedom to think. Not forgetting modernism, metaphysical poetry and Milton’s Paradise Lost (complete with a visit to his |cottage), the course was beyond anything I had previously encountered."

Sounds incredibly basic, barely above state education corriculum

>>11555742
I legitimately started reading this and thought it was a parody of Ready Player One's long list of 80s shit

>>11555956
Horrible feels I didn't want this

>>11555956
I read this as
>tfw you will never have to live in the UK
>tfw you will not become a snobby brat only concerned with status and money but live the artsy, intellectually stimulating boheme life
all good feels desu

>>11556888
The only place worth living in the UK is Scotland, on some remote island in the highlands tending to a small flock of sheep, maybe a quick jaunt to the distillery and navigate the local ferry. All the while amassing an impressive collection of novels from across the world.


At least thats my dream

>>11555956
>ever experience the glory of Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne isn't that expensive even if you get the full picnic package. In truth it's not particularly good anyway, half the crowd are just there to be seen, and the singing is often mediocre. Covent Garden has the same problem. Eno often has higher standards but the libretti are obviously shitty. Unironically Opera North is the best opera company in the UK

But I was educated at a top private school

>>11557376
Which one? Is it even top 30 in the fees list?

>>11555742
>tfw its been 100 years since a private school has produced anything significant

>>11557409
Not quite, but do try again. Where do you think the best British writers in recent history were educated? How about the top judges? The top academics? Top politicians? Top financiers? Top lawyers, perhaps?

Do try and keep a lid on your resentment old boy, it's awfully poor sport to let it get the better of your capacity for thinking rationally.

>>11557400
Not one in the UK, certainly. Top 20 US.

>tfw you will never be a king’s scholar ag eton
>tfw no guarantee of success, irregardless of chosen proffession or field
>tfw not getting taken to the rive gauche by your friends HSBC VP dad
>tfw not rubbing elbows with politicians, QCs, nobel prize winners, and film financiers from the age of 12
>not having your pick of universities in any subject

JUST

>mfw a state school-educated guy tries hitting on me

Darling, my daddy earns over a hundred-k working in central London. What on earth do you think could possibly persuade me to throw away my genetic heritage and comfortable lifestyle in order to date you? Love? Love!?! Ha ha, don't make me laugh, please. Do you really think that's how life works? That a girl like me throws away her good fortune for something as pathetic as a childish crush? Dear I can make myself fall in love with anybody providing he's from a good school, a good family and is pursuing the right kind of career (that's to say, a highly lucrative one). Now please, do run along and swipe on your tinder profile or whatever, I have a date with a guy who works at Goldman who is frankly swimming in doe. Ta-ta!

>>11557445
Irrelevant. You wouldn't get into the top 100 schools in the UK. Class is much more entrenched here.

My school is only #95 in the country. Should I just burn my diploma and kill myself?

>>11557454
too bad western culture isn't entrenched there and soon enough UK will fall the way Rome did.

>>11557469
Only the poor parts of England will "fall". The top crust will look after themselves as always.

>>11557454
On the record, I'm the one you're responding to, and >>11557469 is not me.
For what it's worth, your late princess was a dear family friend.

>>11557268

I can confirm this. North Wales or the Highlands are god-tier. The rest is falls under Sharia Law

>>11555742
>J M Coetzee’s Disgrace,
pleb
>T S Eliot's The Waste Land
pleb, considered mostly poor by eliot himself
>We roamed with questions, exclamations, and a freedom to think
Poor prose here

Oxford is trying to give off the image that class is less important now. True, it's not, but I, as a working class student, have had access to societies in which I am the sole state schooler. The truth is that class is still entrenched as >>11557454 this anon says. And let me tell you, it's fabulous being accepted by them all. I've had a shit single-parent alcoholic adulterous poor upbringing and all I've wanted is to be a member of the upper class. I'm not there, but I'm almost there. It's glorious.

>all these people trying to diminish the public schoolboy attitude
I don't expect Americans to understand, but it's weird. Britain and the US are becoming more similar by the minute (Britain becoming more like the US) but this aspect of our life remains, and is distinctively British.

>>11557930
It totally exists in the US as well but their elite like the Bush clan have the decency to at least pretend to be normal humans when it matters

>>11557930
The British working class aren't becoming that Americanized, IMO. We as a nation are so old that we have really tried out all possible avenues of mirth or admiration and have settled, dissapointed but mildly content, into our bitter, guarded and darkly humored identity. In the USA for example, one could never imagine the supports of a sports team earnestly chanting "You're nothing special, we lose every week!" etc. The British working class, for all their uncultured swinishness, maintains a grimly self-effacting attitude towards life which in my opinion is in part a consequence of their being the descendants of an ancient and powerful people, the same stock as those who conquered a quarter of the earth despite their small number, and yet spend their days in terraced houses in rainy, grey towns where barely any money circulates. It is as if they know that life is shit, that the world is deeply unjust, but celebrate the fact that at least they don't pretend any different.

The upper class have respect for such a culture, as is evident by the way that posh young people repeat things like "It's coming home lads!" and (ironically) support Corbyn, and often dress (before they become City boys) ironically like ravers from the 1990s. Upper class culture is rather Jewish in the sense that it really doesn't "belong" anywhere, since the children go to school simply where their parents can afford to send them (often faceless tiny hamlets away from the crowd), then move to London which is of course only "local" to Essex-tier proles and non-whites, and then retreat to some commuter village where they usually have no roots but where they can afford to be "in Town" whenever they like while not having to live around proles. They are a rootless people who, rather be held back by such things as local affiliation, duty to one's community, and such, instead form their own finance-orientated "networks" of fellow rootless toffs (often Jews) while seeking identity either in the settled working-class Folk (who they both loathe and revere) and in a distant past where their type were themselves admired and were the centre of attention simply because they could openly wield enough brute force to repel any attempts to dethrone them. And I say that as a virgin.

>>11555742
God I wish I was the guy on the left, even looks like me

>>11557919
>Oxford is trying to give off the image that class is less important now
Standards are already less important, so might as well get rid of class too
>>11558055
>We as a nation are so old that
The Jews and the Italians are old nations. You are a young nation, not even 700 years old imo

>>11558062
>The Jews and the Italians are old nations. You are a young nation, not even 700 years old imo

This is true. English are hilarious when they look down on Americans for being like 200 years younger than them

>>11555742
>"We dived into everything – J M Coetzee’s Disgrace, T S Eliot’s The Waste Land, 18th-century satire, and on to inter-war poetry.

so did everyone who went to school

>>11557452
>swimming in doe
>doe

>>11558070
>18th-century satire
I love this one when its obvious he didn't want to say Jonathan Swift

>>11555956

>tfw proledom is inescapable.
>even if by some miracle you became wealthy you'd still be about as cultured as Donald Trump

>>11558062
>Italians are old nations

Are you stupid? Italy is one of the youngest nations of all, and even the idea of a "Italian nation" is flimsy at best. They all like to speak in dialect, some people outrefuse to speak Italian and just use Romanesque or Calabrese instead. It's no wonder the phrase "We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians" is so well-known.

>>11555956
This is stupid. Rich people court artists because the artistic, cultured life exists independent of class. The person who seeks out these things outside of compulsory education is more likely to truly appreciate it than someone who was reared to do so.

>>11557977
Oh don't worry I know it exists in the US. In fact, I think class differences are more important in the US if we're thinking about uni admissions (the legacy programme in US elite unis is ridiculous and doesn't exist in the UK). But that's what I mean: in the UK the upper classes are really weird. Some like it, some don't. But our upper class is weird.
>>11558055
I like a lot of what you're saying and I think you're bang on mostly. But I think the posh you're thinking of are mostly metropolitan ones. Working class is trendier, but the fuddy duddy rich as seen in Brideshead Revisited (let's keep it literary - this is effectively what OP is thinking of) are quite separate. They are dying out though.

>>11558120
>But that's what I mean: in the UK the upper classes are really weird.

If you look into shit like the Skull and Bones society its pretty weird shit going on too. I suppose the seperation is that American Blue Bloods are decisively Masonic and clandestine compared to the explitic and flamboyant nature of the UK's gentry

>>11558130
desu it's my fault for being so vague and using a word like 'weird' (excuse me, I'm a little drunk). The US and UK upper classes are both weird, but just different. I'm actually drunker than I think and can't bring myself to go into it a lot but I agree with you on your reply. Both weird, UK's more flamboyant and explicit.

>>11557417
>best British writers in recent history
>top
>lawyers
Great bait.

>>11557417
http://www.newser.com/story/87606/preacher-busted-calling-homosexuality-a-sin.html

>>11555754
i live in oxford and its full of shitheads

>>11557417
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/14/skirts-boys-private-highgate-school-plans-gender-neutral-uniform/

>>11557268
>>11557490
rich peopple disgust me

>>11557919
this is sad

>>11558190
mate let's ignore your veiled insult at me, and can I just speak seriously about the homeless situation? Have you noticed this 'gang' going about, came in a couple of months ago, have a couple of dogs, claim to be homeless, and intimidate/gang up on people in secluded areas? they seem to be gypsy-ish but they're in the city and live on the streets

>>11558227
true, mate, but it's the way i've been brought up and i can't help it. had lovely middle class upringing until i was like 7 when it all went to shit and since then i've been hungry for something more. conscious of it, but attracted regardless

>>11558055
>who they both loathe and revere
*whom
>And I say that as a virgin.
You don't say

>>11558222
Checked.
They're parasites.

just become new money. Everyone here (i'm guessing) is smart enough to get a scholarship to a good uni, and then just figure out how to invest and manage money. Then when you go into the country club wearing a wife beater and sweatpants they can't say shit because you are now their equal.

>>11558292
>>11558222
>rich peopple disgust me

>>11558293
>get a scholarship to a good uni
Are you American? As a Brit, I feel so lucky. Everywhere's the same price, and loans are really generous. And to go to a place like Oxford is even cheaper than other places, since the university gives out huge grants that you don't have to pay back.

>>11557417
>Where do you think the best British writers in recent history were educated?

Is this a trick question?

>>11558299
As a Brit, I feel so lucky I get to pay huge taxes so that Foxroy Hamilton and Mahmoud Umbungo get to go to top colleges while neither of their parents pay a cent of tax

I'm that Oxford guy that keeps on posting and my ego requires me to repeat it.

OP you don't know what it's like. 8 weeks of hell, you just choose whether it's good hell or bad hell. I've seen people wrecked by it, and to be honest maybe I'll be wrecked by the end. Tutors at Oxford (and the deans for that matter) fucking hate public schoolboys and their attitude - they will cut you fucking down, make you cry if they need to. Since I'm not one, they go easy. But the work load is still ridiculous.

>>11555956
Go back to writing cuck fantasies

>>11558299
I mean yes, but going into debt is never a good thing
student loans may seem like a necessary evil but don't fall for it. I'm not sure about oxfords financial aids procedures but if you know what you're doing you can accumulate a bunch of smaller scholarships and then be able to pay for college, boarding, and food. But expect to have your shit stolen because the rich are still greedy

>>11558326
You have to be a nigger or a woman or preferably a woman nigger to get grants though

>>11558328
Are you dumb? Is your ego really getting in the way of free money? will you really risk your entire future because you didn't want to ask for free money but instead decided to ask the bank to shackle you in debt?

>>11558345
Thats not what I said at all dingus. I'm saying that the odds are so heavily stacked against white guys receiving any help that you're better off prioritizing what you can do. I.e. earn your own fucking money and pay for your own education

>>11558328
that's bull. grants are really really generous (though it depends which college you go to - i go to quite a rich one so they have a lot to give).
>>11558326
i know. i make the most of grants and save. loans are my last resort, but a necessary resort always. my college gave me £5k this year though! goes a long way, and don't have to pay it back. mainly tuition fees i'm amassing debt for.

>>11558068
Get a load of this Yankee who thinks that nations are only as old as their new fangled constitutions. Exactly the type of thing a new worlder mongrel would say.

>>11558363
get into the real world mate, seriously. not everything's the way ben shapiro portrays it

>>11558374
It is actually, thats why I'm actually in the real world and not begging for a pat on the head by (((Academia))) which is a joke

>>11558283
yea they've been here for a while though
>>11558285
use your pain as an experience trip to wisdom, not a way to roleplay as 'upper class'

>>11558385
mate

>>11558310
>Tutors at Oxford (and the deans for that matter) fucking hate public schoolboys and their attitude - they will cut you fucking down, make you cry if they need to.
how?

>>11558414
you are wise, thank you. i'm trying to fight my narcissism, i really am.

>>11558415
Yeah whatever dumb fuck, we'll see who's worse for wear in ten years

>>11558430
femnism is cancer lol

>>11558418
Have you ever been intellectually emasculated for a full hour because you handed in work that wasn't bulletproof or hold an indefensible opinion?

>>11558430
>>11558450
/pol/ is cancer. Please go back and stop shitting up this board

>>11558430
This is both politically and artistically good

>>11558426
be glad you're in the place that you are in now but don't let it consume who you were beforehand. regarding narcissism, trust in your higher self.

you also have to have the capacity to care about those things, which most students do not

>>11558462
No you fuck off reddit. You don't belong her you cocksucking fucking bugman cunt

>>11558086
Italy is a young state, but an old nation, or a collection of old nations if you wish to be stupid and pedantic (read : british).
>>11558368
>Get a load of this Yankee who thinks that nations are only as old as their new fangled constitutions
Norman history is not your history. Screaming about mongrels won't change that, bongbreath.

>>11558617
>Norman history is not your history.
im glad.

>>11558430
My only consolation seeing these fuckwits ruin academia is that they will basically be unemployable outside of it.

>>11558637
>being antiracist makes you unemployable

>>11558452
Sounds about right although 1 hour seems to be more of a detriment since it can probably be explained in 30 minutes or less.

>>11556646
real

>>11557268
>The only place worth living in the UK is Scotland

ohohohohoho
ahahahahahahaha
heeheheheheheehe

>>11557417
Why are anglos so delusional, bros?

>>11558633
Cope

>>11558791
cope??

>>11558086
Honestly that's one of the enchanting things about Italy. How it sort of gradates from people who are rather Germanic in character up North to the ultra-clannish Latinized Greco-Arabs down South with Rome, that proud eternal city in the center.

That tension in internal character just makes for a really rich cultural expression as they try to hash out what they are from those opposing poles and long history.

>>11558430
Somehow they managed to fuck up Angelou's poem.
Also, they couldn't find a black writer in the entire Commonwealth so they had to nick an American and managed to mess the text up of her poem in the process?
Sad!

>>11555742
i got all those books from the library for free and read them because i wanted to, so technically i'm both smarter and more cultured

Where did you go to school that you didn't read this stuff? Alabama?

>>11555742
I could hustle these little Tarquins out of daddy’s money in a game of pool easy

>>11558283
Those are called Irish people

>>11557268
Then the locals burn you alive in a giant wicker man