Why do so many modern adults take pride in watching superhero films and reading YA?

I don't think they "take pride" in it, people are just looking for some easily-digested popcorn time-filler and stuff like cape movies and YA is what fits the bill for them.

Nostalgia and irony.

because some people can enjoy things without them being in a top 100 literary greats list

>Look at the recent crop of political figure in the United States, they appear very influenced by something like Guardians of the Galaxy

Then they should read Laurence Sterne or Henry Fielding. Adults who read children's books are just pathetic.

>In fact, you'll find they often have provocative themes and complex characters that are equal to most of the books you'll find on the "adult" fiction shelves

Could they be subtly implying that adult fiction books are as shitty as YA?
Not that I care.

>There was a whirr of leaves and then three separate thuds as Dostoevski, Tolstoy, and Checkov flew out of the open window and struck the bole of an oak tree, "The idea is," explained H.M., 'I want you to read some fellers named Dumas and Mark Twain and Stevenson and Chesterton and Conan Doyle.

>Anyway, who cares what happens to people called Sonya Beerwichkov Parapourdipoff and Feodor Ireoffenskeky Varaverakinsoleovitch?

c-c-cant i read fairytales then?

I'm not sure I subscribe to the "it's for entertainment, it's popcorn" argument.

I for tend to exclusively read classics or "literary fiction," and once convinced myself that I must be some sort of snob to not read best-selling airport novels, or crime, or Harry Potter, or whatever.

So I decided to pick up a bestselling thriller and just read it as entertainment, thinking that it must be incredibly ready and readable and entertaining, if not particularly rewarding.

I lasted about 20 pages, and not because while I was reading I wish it was Joyce or whatever, but because it was so simple and shallow it bored me.

Most people are very easily pleased, and are happy to consume books that are simple and skin-deep. It's the same reason grown men pay to see films about the same handful of superheroes month after month.

>I'm not sure I subscribe to the "it's for entertainment, it's popcorn" argument.
>Most people are very easily pleased, and are happy to consume books that are simple and skin-deep. It's the same reason grown men pay to see films about the same handful of superheroes month after month.

Make up your mind

Instead of what? Watching westerns and reading pulp thrillers? A lot of YA is more intelligent and complex than the dogshit written for adults.

Younger adults tend to be unwilling to entertain the following ideas:

-that not all forms of reading material are equal
-that instant gratification and constant stimulation are not the only uses for culture
-that we have a moral obligation to expand our reading and develop our intelligence

I know that Merrivale is a 'good English common sense' type, but it's crazy to suggest that Chekhov couldn't tell a good story.

carr was clearly biased on top of him disliking subtlety

but he was amazing at creating mysteries so i like him anyway

for some it is entertaining
but for others, it is boring
some people require more complexity to be entertained

Why do you take pride in the fact that you don't?

Bloom? Is that you?

Bingo.

I still read Garth Nix, top author.

Plato says the same thing

are you the same grandpa that hates harry potter like three threads over? Hi there!

because there's literally nothing wrong with them

yes it is. being 'in' on something that's 'in'

Real issues comes when people starts to read "real" litterature the same way they read YA fiction. As long as the entertainement field and the cultural field (by Arendt's definition of them) remain distinct, the latter can still live.
The other day I searched "Histoire de l’oeil" on youtube, just curious about what I would find. That was terrifiing, it was full of "reviews" of people reading it like they would read Harry Potter.

Good point user.

>That was terrifiing, it was full of "reviews" of people reading it like they would read Harry Potter.
Can you give us an example? I genuinely don't know how people read Harry Potter.

I love this man so much

I like to get blazed and watch romantic comedies. I bet its fun to do that and read crappy YA

>complex characters
>provocative themes
>"adult" fiction
REEEEEEEE

When I was a kid “YA” didn't even exist. How old are you?

To be fair a lot of comics these days aren't exactly for kids. Seriously, go read some 80s comics and then look at the 90s and 00s. They get really dark and deal with death, sex, and drugs.

>They get really dark and deal with death, sex, and drugs.
The opinion of a modern adult everyone!

I'm curious, is this evidence that the proportion of people consuming highbrow or even middlebrow art has decreased, or is it possible that it's stayed the same? Maybe the adults reading YA and watching superhero movies are the type who would have been illiterate a few decades ago?

Comparing literature in college 30 years ago when my mom studied and based on word of mouth of professors and my own observations, very few people actually read anything intellectual because the studies have shifted towards a more female friendly studying method, meaning memorization over understanding.
I actually know a lot of people who do read at least something, but that's because we connect better, but on average most people are barely literate (this is a fact, law student, father lawyer, known lots of people in the business, it's unanimous that the basic grammar in legal practice has taken a head dive).

>meaning memorization over understanding
that seems like a more autistic friendly i.e. male friendly.

This. Is there attention just plot-focused, and their appreciation of the book based on "entertainment value"?

Male autism is more related to mathematics, physics, legal practice (men make better lawyers and judges on average), philosophy.

>Superheroes films
Yeah, I grew up with those characters and they make feel young again. Also, I have waited 20 years to see all those comic book superheroes battle each other on-screen. Its the closer to see them in real life and it feels like coming home.

>YA books
I can't waste my life reading this trash. Not even Harry Potter. This shit is for kids or retarded adults. Same goes to Twilight or those Road Runner or Star Wars books.

Hi Pepperidge

kek teen confirmed

If my peers take pride in reading YA, I'm going to take pride in reading VNs. Song of Saya is probably better than anything John Green or his wife's son ever wrote, anyway.

>theres a 73 years old dude on a forum made for romantics of japannesse anime posting shit about YA with me

sick double standard bro where you'd get it?

It's pasta you dip

you miss the part "take pride"

hello oldtimer.

Well, I didnt grow up with YA books, so I dont have any nostalgia for that crap

Typically youtu.be/Zuxm4B__aVI

- "I enjoyed it" The question of whether you enjoy something or not only matters in the entertainement field. You shouldn't enjoy L'Histoire de l'oeil, it was not made to be enjoyable but for "higher" reasons (I know it's vague but trying to describe these "higher reasons" would be writing a essay on the point of litterature itself, which I'm not capable and which would be ridiculous in a Veeky Forums post.
- "Story of the eye is about x ; in the book this and that happens". Art is not about its object, it's not the things described that matters, it's what's behind. When Cézanne draws an apple, you shouldn't really care about the apple.
- "classic" Calling a book a "classic" is disconecting it from immanence, as if it didn't concern us anymore and thus making it harmless and pointless.

Basicaly they are missing the point. They read it, "enjoy it" and that's all.
There probably is a lot more to say about this but I hope you get what I meant.

>"I enjoyed it" The question of whether you enjoy something or not only matters in the entertainement field. You shouldn't enjoy L'Histoire de l'oeil, it was not made to be enjoyable but for "higher" reasons

isn't it a book about inserting eggs into vagina and fellating a cleric?
i mean if you fap to it i would hardly call it higher reasons

And he was right, culture was being dumbed down and continues to be dumbed down.

Back in his day high culture was theatre, going to the gym and discussing the nature of the world. A thousand years later it was going to church and singing songs. Today it's going to the club and getting a STD.

>tearing down frivolous entertainment
>by posting on Veeky Forums

Fucking autists.

Nah, enjoyment is pretty much all there is in literature.

That's precisely what I said, if you view it as a book "about inserting eggs into vagina and fellating a cleric" you're missing the point.

those who make reviews about it usually don't have the courage to say that's how they see the book

I imagine this would be solved if the average english/literature teacher didn't suck.

I'm thinking back to high-school, a perfect time to start teaching deep reading, and I'm realizing no one actually taught us anything profound at all. Our assignments just consisted of things like, recount the basic plot, or answering "what's the moral of the story?" and this was for supposed AP classes.

We did write basic essays on literature, but all that did was teach students how to use sparknotes.

>implying that one can teach "profundity"

holy kek
This is how you end up meme'd, btw.

Not the guy you asked but I'm 18.

crime and punishment is just YA for idealist traditionalist fedoras like yourself hahahaha

>"when the narrator is just talking about his own experience, that's where it gets very boring"
Huh I guess I understand now

It is, really.

For those out of the loop: this is bait and pasta

Seriously, the amount of replies this got is pathetic. Lurk more faggots.

He's right

>everything is bait and pasta
>hurr durr everyone who replies to a thread is a NEWFAGGOT

Who the fuck cares? If we followed your advice the board would be dead because we already know everything so there's nothing to be discussed.

>attempting to tear down frivolous discussion
>on Veeky Forums

Who's the autist here?

There is a slight nuance in his argument, which means that it isn't internally contradicting. He is saying that people that read literature aren't avoiding entertainment, because the bestsellers they could read, instead of literature, appear boring to them.

>cites my willful engagement in frivolous entertainment
>as evidence that I'm against frivolous entertainment

Try harder, kike.

They don't take pride in it. They just enjoy it. That's the big difference between them and you, they have nothing to prove.

It is a sad state of affairs, user. I truly believe that our culture is degenerating.

You will be called a fedora, but you're right. Culture is degenerating because of three things: globalization, consumerism and a breakdown of attention span caused by consumer electronics

Not my point; I was saying that one shouldn't reply to CERTAIN posts, that pasta being one of them. It is part of the old internet adage: don't feed the trolls.

>They don't take pride in it

You're wrong about this though.

That's what I thought. At the very least they aren't exactly wrong. There isn't an enormous gulf of talent between Dan Brown and John Green.

You're correct.

>implying there isn't a wealth of Westerns with high cinematic thus artistic value
>implying any YA is better than a Simenon or Indridason.

Can you be any more butthurt over nothing? Stop being an autist, go read a real book.

modern trends revolve around continuous self affirmation instead of actually being criticial of anything, especially themselves

Most of the tests I took under female professors were essay/writing oriented, which I would say favors understanding of topic over pure memorization.

Here's an even better example

youtube.com/watch?v=Wo7PZJtmfjc

my sister reads them, but she's a HS librarian.

and yet 80's comics are better reads even with having self-imposed rules regarding content.

What are you on about, you fucking retard? That pasta wasn't a troll. It was directly related to the question in the OP. I think you need to go back to r/books.

I'm 25. I guess I considered myself a kid until I was 18, and I know there was YA around before 2008. Stuff like Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter are YA, right?

isn't Judy Blume YA?

The truly offensive thing about YA books is that normies hold them to be in the same category of media as literature when in reality they are television put to paper. This allows them to feel superior to those who merely watch television and this causes them to indulge in a sort of false consciousness where their opinions on literature are meritorious despite them only having read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, a few Stephen King books and a couple of novels that their favorite movies were based on, after watching the movies.

In this false consciousness driven sense of identity they shape, I would argue malform, the literary community, they malform it into conformance with the tropes of lesser forms of entertainment, rendering the entire medium more barren.

The rich soils from whence great works once rose like trees seeking to touch the stars have become denuded. The fruits of these trees are removed from the ecosystem and fed to cattle in the cinema, the disgusting sludge produced by these cattle is then flung back into the forests of literature. It is a form of fertilizer but a toxic form which will eventually poison the very soil which the cattle require for the fruits that sustain them.

There was room for bad books in literature in the old days, Nietzsche considered them a way to contain the plebs from tainting the well of hochkultur. But the containment has been breached, with new ways to consume media the wall between good books and bad books has fallen to pieces. In the same way that Europeans began to understand themselves differently as they discovered the various races of the world, we understand literature differently knowing all of the other, newer ways to express artistic sentiment. And this is, from my perspective, something that will denigrate the form.

>YA books in reality are television put to paper.
this is what happens when educators scrambled to increase literacy and reading rates

Teenagers and Young Adults (pre-adults) like to think they are different, unique and better than those around them. When real adults do thing the pre-adults associate with not being adult, the pre-adults lash out because they don't understand. They believe life is a ladder system whereby you simply increase your greatness with age, and so any adult who enjoys something the pre-adult considers "low tier" and beneath someone their age is held in contempt. The problem is you have people too young to know telling people old enough to know how to live life. Pathetic really but we all did it too when we were kids so its just normal growing up stuff really.

>lesser forms of entertainment
No such thing, by definition.

rubbin' my cock right now...

Tbh I don't mind that if that's the real impetus. Like if it's people who have or would have had a learning disability being better educated and not illiterate and consuming (allbeit shit) literature, then great. But the not even erosion but exclusion and snobbery against "high culture" I don't like.

I think the problem is really that the stupidest people within the intelligent classes find non-ya too difficult. As education for those with impediments has improved, the number at this level of intelligence who are also able to read okay has grown. As a kind of second prong to this, those that otherwise would have moved on to high culture type shit have found access to higher education restricted and/or of poor quality, and that the general exposure to high culture is generally less because of the flood and raising up of stuff like YA. So it's like the bell curve has skewed right a bit.

What definition do you think you're using?

are you including doggerel and lad mags?