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/lit/ - Literature

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17132481 No.17132481 [Reply] [Original]

What's the explanation for smart people liking pleb books? I know someone who I could talk to for hours, and he always has something interesting to say, but his favourite book is Alchemist.
Can smartness/intelligence co-exist with bad taste in literature? I personally find it difficult to understand how.

>> No.17132633
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17132633

Different kinds of intelligence.

The guy who cures cancer might have never touched a book in years. The guy who writes an era-defining epic might know nothing about science beyond the water cycle. And again, maybe someone knows a lot about philosophy but nothing about fiction.

>> No.17132659
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17132659

>>17132481
People are in fact very different from one another.
Really smart ass people like Chomsky or Lenin are capable of such infuriating idiocy and it takes plebeian levels of smartness to show how dumb they can be sometimes.

>> No.17132678

>>17132481
Smart people recognize taste is a spook. I'm very suspicious of people with "perfect" taste, they tend to be midwits and LARPers most of the time.

>> No.17132693

>>17132481
you're just getting filtered bro. your smart friend isn't smart because of the books they like, they like books that appeal to their intelligence. you just don't function at their level and therefore cannot see what they see in what you call "pleb" books.

>> No.17132706

>>17132481
Books are like wine. You have to develop a taste for it. Also>>17132633

>> No.17132717

>>17132678
Are you saying there's nothing such as bad literature?

>> No.17132729

>>17132481
Even smart people like taking breaks from serious shit

>> No.17132732

Everyone is a midwit. Even the Greeks. Even Karl Marx. Even Kant, Wiggerstein, and Highdigger. No man is capable of being intelligent. We are disgusting beasts who struggle to achieve temporary glimmers of sentience before the waves of idiocy carry is away once more

>> No.17132734

>>17132717
Are you misunderstanding what the other guy said or are you dumber than you think?

>> No.17132748

>>17132481
Taste in art has more to do with personal experience than innate intelligence. Your friend likely identifies with one of the characters in a major way. This is what people call empathy, you should look into it.

>> No.17132755
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17132755

>>17132734
He'll probably deny both allegations, but I say two things can be true.

>> No.17132778

>>17132734
'taste is a spook' implies there's nothing such as mediocre taste. If mediocre books exist, mediocre taste should consequently exist too.

>> No.17132784

>>17132732
von Neumann wasn't

>> No.17132826

Eating expensive well cooked fine food is great, but every now and again junk food like McDonalds hits the spot when you don't feel like doing much.

>> No.17132830

>>17132732
What about Einstein

>> No.17132844

>>17132830
total midwit, never mention him again

>> No.17132855

>>17132778
taste doesn't exist
you already know what's good, and if you know what's good you know what is bad, this means taste is merely artificial and thus meaningless

>> No.17132865

>>17132481
I know a very smart and interesting guy who reads garbage light novels even though he's not a weeb.
He says he reads for entertainment and doesn't care about prose or big words. He just wants meaningless fun where everything is a success.

>> No.17132870

>>17132481
Your worldview is oversimplified

>> No.17132908

>>17132865
>entertainment
This is literally all there is to it. You faggots have to realize that just because you're no fun allowed, joyless pseuds this doesn't mean everyone else is like you. Midwits seem to believe intelligent people are soulless autistic automatons that don't enjoy anything and exist purely for doing maths. You have an idealized cartoon-tier view of what a smart person is.