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/lit/ - Literature

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6205919 No.6205919 [Reply] [Original]

Most pretentious book you've ever read?
Pic related.

>> No.6205945

Apron, simply apron

>> No.6205959
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6205959

emil, simply emil

>> No.6206003
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6206003

>>6205919
Anon's Post

>> No.6206012

>>6205959
please no, corn father

>> No.6206013

>>6205919
This is Water
>>6205959
please no, corn father

>> No.6206014

it's pretty bad and not worth reading

the only book that I can think is worse right now is Infinite Jest.

>> No.6206019

>>6205959

Jokes on you corn father, prose is for sissy boys.

OP is not trying hard enough since Finnegans Wake is far more pretentious than Ulysses, and neither one of them is anywhere near as pretentious as Infinite Jest, which is the most pretentious book I think I've ever read, although Money by Martin Amis runs it a close second.

Oh wait, maybe Julian Barnes is more pretentious than them both.

>> No.6206028

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I wasn't able to bring myself to finish it, it was so pretentious.

>>6205959
please no, corn father

>> No.6206081

>>6206019
>Martin Amis

Despise him. What a smarmy chit. Took his Father's workmanly but sharp style and his consciously readable subjects and plots, stretched it out and spangled it with easy modernism, boa'd it with outrageousness and decadent poetry.

>> No.6206110

>>6206081
I think Nabokov's influence is more apparent than his father's, but I agree nonetheless that he's unoriginal and far inferior to his father. His non-fiction, however, is well worth reading, especially The War Against Cliche.

>> No.6206144

>>6206110

He reads to me as Amis senior (especially in the phrasing and the attitudes) + Nabokov - I agree. Except where he's incapable of writing anything that isn't lurid somehow. From Nabokov we have the wonderfully delicate Pnin, many of the short stories, Transparent things, and so on. Amis just keeps writing novels, so to speak, set in Auschwitz. He's trying to out-Lolita Nabokov, but he never will.

I've read some of his lectures. He still aggravates me. I feel like he writes everything with a supercilious sneer and a peacock feather in his breast pocket. It's especially bad because his father was such a joy for me to read. He's so consciously not doing the things his son does. Shit, Lucky Jim has an unambiguously happy ending.

>> No.6206232

>>6206144
Well put. No arguments here.

>> No.6206244
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6206244

>>6206144
>I feel like he writes everything with a supercilious sneer

It's not just his writing - do a googley image search on him and it's hard to find a single picture where he doesn't look like someone just smeared dogshit on his upper lip.

>> No.6206407

>>6205959
Please no corn father

>> No.6206485

>>6205959
please no, corn father

>> No.6206518

>>6206014
le ebin contrarian who hasn't read IJ.

>> No.6206533

>>6206518

>le ebin /lit/erati who's also never read IJ

>> No.6206553

>>6206533
finished it in a month actually. super easy to read, I don't get why people consider it such a difficult book.

>> No.6206562

>>6205919
>pretentious

4/10 Getting some replies.

>> No.6206568

>>6206562

>pretentious twat confirmed.

>> No.6207719

>>6205959

please no, corn father

>> No.6207730

>>6205959
please no, corn father

>> No.6207739

Off the top of my head, I'll say pic related. Actually dropped it like 50 pages in. Got sick of having to look up words every fucking page, and half the time I could find no reference to the words other than sites showing their being used in that book and not giving a definition.

>> No.6207751

>>6207739
Forgot pic, first time in a while

>> No.6207843

I feel like "pretentious" is one of those words like "literally" and "ironic" that is now just being thrown around carelessly.

Is Ulysses "pretentious"? Not really. To be pretentious it would have to be assuming it knows more than it actually does. However, the meaning contained in Ulysses isn't just a bunch of academics reading too much into it. The book actually does contain a lot and is very meaningful and written by a very intelligent mind. To call it pretentious would be like saying Joyce is actually less than what he is and only trying to seem smart in writing this.

>> No.6207861

>>6205959
you stupid fucking sheep, you probably make fun of people that listen to pop music and you retards are no better

>> No.6207944

>>6206553

because it's long and has big words even though they're not used in complicated ways

>>6207751

looks like you forgot it twice

>>6207843

good post

Also anyone who thinks it's pretentious has clearly never actually read the fucking book.

>> No.6207959

>>6205919
Brothers Karamazov, shit was so boring couldn't be bothered to finish it.

>> No.6207964

>>6205919
Walden.

>> No.6207993

>>6207959
Are posts like these trolls or do people actually think that they're allowed to pass judgment on a work without finishing it?

>> No.6208013

>>6207843

>the meaning contained in Ulysses isn't just a bunch of academics reading too much into it. The book actually does contain a lot and is very meaningful and written by a very intelligent mind. To call it pretentious would be like saying Joyce is actually less than what he is and only trying to seem smart in writing this.

why are you trying to reason with adolescent shitposters it will get you nowhere you should know that by now

>> No.6208017

>>6207959
>boring

Lol I bet you live a super exciting life

>> No.6208024

>>6207993
I know this is /lit/ and all but please, go be a pretentious cocksucker somewhere else.