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And the goalposts move ever in favor of the gatekeepers,
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Jan 31, 2023 12:44
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Yes, I don't understand why anyone would want to read Beloved or As I Lay Dying. Trash authors, those Toni Morrisons and William Faulkners, with their boring characters and mediocre writing.
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Jan 31, 2023 14:20
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habeasdorkus posted:Yes, I don't understand why anyone would want to read Beloved or As I Lay Dying. [sarcastic hyperbole]Darn tootin.' They should have taken lessons from good writers like Dan Brown or Dean Koontz.[/sarcastic hyperbole]
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Jan 31, 2023 19:35
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As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it.
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Jan 31, 2023 20:51
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I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. It's basically a "what if humans were the defenders of their planet and only surviving via guerilla warfare" and at the time it made me think it was an allegory for the Iraq War, and he fuckin John Cenas with a steel chair vlad goddamn tepes as being the savior of humanity, out of loving nowhere. I'm still mad about that book, to the point of probably never reading a single book by him ever again. I even went back to see if I was stupid and missed something, and I couldn't find anything relevant other than maybe a chapter or two before the ending before hinting at it. I was enjoying it up until that point.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:02
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UwUnabomber posted:As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it. I think I was too bewildered and disconnected to get mad.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:12
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UwUnabomber posted:As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it. Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:17
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I know ~~both sides~~ is usually bullshit, but there's just as much good literary fiction as there is good SFF, and the same goes for bad books. If you've only read what you're given at high school or whatever, then yeah you're probably not going to come away with a great impression, same if you'd only ever read Heinlein or Sanderson or Rothfuss.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:19
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Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. Mine was The Education of Little Tree, which I felt vindicated on by discovering years later that it was written by a KKK member
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Jan 31, 2023 22:23
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Chainclaw posted:I just finished Piranesi. What a great, short book. I can’t think of anything bad about it, it’s just so good too to bottom. Philip Reeve, who wrote Mortal Engines and Railhead, among other things (books for young people that tend to avoid the worst bits of modern YA tropes and style) and also illustrated a bunch of Horrible Histories books, did some "fan" art of Piranesi recently which I thought was incredibly good. https://twitter.com/philipreeve1/status/1619069741448171520?t=VEaHkPE0qjwX7IfGt72gDg&s=19
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Jan 31, 2023 22:27
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Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. It's actually kinda funny the near-universal hatred I've seen from people who read that book in school. If you ever have a talk about "real literature I hate", Catcher will always be there and maybe also The Scarlet Letter. Of course, I think TSL's negative reputation is more a victim of bad education than the quality of the book itself. "Please list all the symbolism in the book" Symbolism is great but this method of learning is probably why we got "the curtains are just frickin' blue."
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Jan 31, 2023 22:27
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. Huh, I read the same book, and I only liked it after the vampire stuff started happening. Was ok, but prefer Path of the Fury when it comes to Webers supernatural fantasy/ scifi mixes
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Jan 31, 2023 22:31
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NikkolasKing posted:It's actually kinda funny the near-universal hatred I've seen from people who read that book in school. If you ever have a talk about "real literature I hate", Catcher will always be there and maybe also The Scarlet Letter. My hatred for it was probably made worse because I was either reading or had just finished reading The Silmarillion for the first time, and the contrast between them was so stark that it made Catcher all the more infuriating.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:48
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Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea #5) by Ursula K Le Guin - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZX86BO/ Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092XHPIG/ Age of Ash (Kithmar #1) by Daniel Abraham - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0976XDNF2/
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Jan 31, 2023 23:41
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cptn_dr posted:Philip Reeve, who wrote Mortal Engines and Railhead, among other things (books for young people that tend to avoid the worst bits of modern YA tropes and style) and also illustrated a bunch of Horrible Histories books, did some "fan" art of Piranesi recently which I thought was incredibly good. He's done illustrations for a wide range of children's educational books under the same imprint as Horrible Histories, all with a remarkably detailed and clear style. Mervyn Peake's the only other novelist-artist I know of.
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Jan 31, 2023 23:57
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GreenBuckanneer posted:he fuckin John Cenas with a steel chair vlad goddamn tepes as being the savior of humanity Oh sure when Zelazny does it it's fine but ok I'll stop.
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Feb 1, 2023 00:00
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. You'll be pleased to hear their's a sequel called Into the Light written by DW and one of his flunkies. I.e. actually written by the flunky.
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Feb 1, 2023 00:26
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I was reading a list of coming releases for February and apparently Lovecraft Country has a sequel. Destroyer of Worlds drops on the 21st.Lovecraft 2:Lovecraft Harder posted:
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Feb 1, 2023 00:53
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Ninurta posted:I was reading a list of coming releases for February and apparently Lovecraft Country has a sequel. Destroyer of Worlds drops on the 21st. Oh amazing. I adored the first book.
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Feb 1, 2023 00:58
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Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. Preach. I will defend it as the best book I've ever hated because I've never had anything before or since infuriate me so much. And I read some real infuriating customer service comments on the the company intranet. Seriously, if it got me that good then author did something right. And Holden Caufield is the best example of protagonist =/= hero. But also just gently caress that book top to bottom.
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Feb 1, 2023 01:19
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Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool.
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Feb 1, 2023 01:41
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Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool.  Jokes on you, I liked Scarlett Letterand the symbolism of class. I also thought I am the Cheese was neat.
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Feb 1, 2023 02:05
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I just thought Catcher was bland, but to be fair at the time I resented being told to read anything so I'd skim assigned books the minimum amount to sort of answer the questions about them. Also it was in Hebrew translation, who knows how good that was.
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Feb 1, 2023 02:06
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I kinda like Catcher.  I'm not really a big fan of flood-of-words stream of consciousness narration and As I Lay Dying is at least partially to blame for my disdain for it. I felt like Faulkner was trying to obscure the story he was telling from me. It was just frustrating. "My mother is a fish." my rear end.
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Feb 1, 2023 02:46
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Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool. "I related to Holden in high school but now that I've matured I now know he was a nasty brat" is a common enough response to the book.
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Feb 1, 2023 02:52
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Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool. I love Catcher, and it's a real tragedy that if it hits you during the exact right stage of your life it obliterates your brain, and yet it's almost guaranteed that you won't be at that stage in high school but these sort of smug little adages are a big reason people roll their eyes at conversations involving literature
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Feb 1, 2023 02:55
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FPyat posted:"I related to Holden in high school but now that I've matured I now know he was a nasty brat" is a common enough response to the book. By idiots, yes WarpDogs posted:I love Catcher, and it's a real tragedy that if it hits you during the exact right stage of your life it obliterates your brain, and yet it's almost guaranteed that you won't be at that stage in high school There's nothing smug about the truth.
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Feb 1, 2023 03:09
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Gaius Marius posted:By idiots, yes This is aggressively rude.
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Feb 1, 2023 03:19
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StrixNebulosa posted:This is aggressively rude. More or less than bragging about your inability to feel empathy for teenagers?
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Feb 1, 2023 03:34
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Gaius Marius posted:There's nothing smug about the truth. This isn't just wrong, it's so wrong that it is difficult to think of anything you could have said that could possibly have been less correct. Smugness is where you're getting satisfaction from emphasising how you're better (in some manner) than someone else; in the context of an argument like this one, the specific metric is being more correct than the other party. Truth is not a defence against smugness, it's a requirement for smugness. Only someone [who thinks they're they're] stating the truth can be smug!
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Feb 1, 2023 03:39
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I get no satisfaction from this only depression at people valuing posturing against a fictional teen over actually learning to have an ounce of empathy for troubled people in bad situations
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Feb 1, 2023 03:42
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I didn’t really like Catcher in high school and I’m not going to bother to reread it again to see if my opinion changes, but I really nailed an A Separate Peace joke the other day and I’m really proud of it
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Feb 1, 2023 04:15
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Catcher had some standout moments that I still think about decades later but on the whole the story doesn’t do much for me. Different from Scarlet Letter, where I’ll always respect the absurdity of the concept but I’ll be damned if I can remember anything specific on a scene-level.
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Feb 1, 2023 04:23
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come on, gamer, i even agree with you about catcher in the rye being good. i just think this whole "make a blanket statement, then call everyone who disagrees with me an immature idiot" bit you're doing is basically just taking a minor and inconsequential point of disagreement ("did someone enjoy a book"), then intentionally distorting this into a much more significant issue ("if someone didn't enjoy the book, it's because they're a callous and/or hateful person who lacks of empathy for the disadvantaged") then dismissing any attempt to actually engage on the topic because that would get in the way of using this made-up opinion as a pretext to indulge in being rude and contemptuous to people to gain emotional validation about how much better you are than them. it's the way a literal schoolyard bully acts and its just as immature! and layering an extra helping of "who, me? smug? self-satisfied? oh no, you misunderstand me, i'm just... depressed. depressed by how much better I am than everyone else... truly it's a sad life being the only person in the room with the genius and the emotional intelligence..." sure doesn't make you any less of condescending rear end in a top hat.
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Feb 1, 2023 04:52
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I could beat up Holden Caulfield. Only thing he's gonna catch are these guns.
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Feb 1, 2023 04:58
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I'm responding to the multiple people who demonstrated, in their own words, their lack of empathy for Holden. I'm not arguing against a straw man.
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Feb 1, 2023 04:58
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Folks, back off from the Holden fan! You don't want to end up like Lennon, right?
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Feb 1, 2023 05:03
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holden…[loud dial up noises]…deez nuts
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Feb 1, 2023 05:10
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Holden was definitely annoying but I still enjoyed The Expanse.
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Feb 1, 2023 05:38
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General Battuta posted:holden…[loud dial up noises]…deez nuts
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Feb 1, 2023 05:54
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