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/lit/ - Literature

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18661319 No.18661319 [Reply] [Original]

>get excited to start a new book
>book has a very dense introduction of 50-100 pages that takes two or three days to get through

>> No.18661327

>>18661319
ngmi

>> No.18661330

>>18661319
I don't read introductions, or skim read it very fast just if I know absolutely nothing about the book and the book is a classic of some sort, and go back to it after finishing.

>> No.18661335

>a Gaddis thread died for this

>> No.18661339

I thought it was common knowledge that introductions go in the trash.

>> No.18661352

>>18661339
It depends on the book. I think it’s important to read a philosophy introduction, or one for a history book, no?

>> No.18661390

People read introductions?

>> No.18661399

>>18661352
Maybe history if you don't know much about the context in which the book was written. For Philosophy I actively avoid reading introductions because they're usually just a summary of the philosopher's main ideas, from the perspective of the chump writing the introduction. If I read an introduction to a philosophy book I typically do it after I finish the book and make my own conclusions.

>> No.18661406

I never read an introduction. They ruin any chance of having an original interpretation. Read them after, if at all.

>> No.18661417

>>18661330
>>18661339
>>18661390
>>18661399
>>18661406
based

>> No.18661444
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18661444

>reading Aristotle
>Work itself is like 190 pages
>70 page intro slapped on by some 'academic'
Immediately skipped, I don't give a shit about your gay opinions.

>> No.18661451

>>18661352
Some of them are good to read, but you should read them after you read the actual book it's commenting on. You don't listen to the DVD commentary before you've seen the movie.

>> No.18661459

>>18661444
Especially if it was written in the last 20 years, dodge that shit like a bullet.

>> No.18661461
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18661461

>>18661319
>get excited to start a new book
>book has an introduction of 37 pages worth of translator's notes

>> No.18661470
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18661470

I am reading this and the introduction is 60 pages and is a life of the author but the author himself is actually a fictional person so the introduction is really truly the start of the book

>> No.18661479

>note from the editor
>note from the translator
>introduction from the translator
>introduction from the original translator
>page 90
FUCK OFF ALREADY

>> No.18661658

You know that you can skip through parts of a book right?

>> No.18661669

>>18661658
I can’t. I can’t do that. That’s cheating