You're at a party. Yuppies, academics, writers. You don't fit in as well as you thought you would've a few years ago...

You're at a party. Yuppies, academics, writers. You don't fit in as well as you thought you would've a few years ago. You ask an unassuming guy who says he reads what his favorite works are.

What is the most impressive response you could recieve?

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Lacan or Stiriner.

"reading is for the borgiouese"

"I don't know"

"I read mostly *insert your favorite works here*"

"My diary"

It's a fine line to walk. I'd be impressed to hear someone actually talented but not a stereotypical indicator of intellect, someone for whom the recommender wouldn't expect to get pseud creds from his intellectual circlejerk undergrad friends, i.e. not Gass, Joyce, Gaddis, McElroy, Pynchon. But also not overly obscure, to the point where they're trying to be a special snowflake.

Maybe someone like Amy Hempel, or better yet, a non-American writer of some renown in literary circles, like Kawabata. Dunno. I would add Barthelme, but he probably fits into that first category I listed above, because his reputation (and Barth's) basically boils down to being le clever pomo man.

>It's a fine line to walk. I'd be impressed to hear someone actually talented but not a stereotypical indicator of intellect, someone for whom the recommender wouldn't expect to get pseud creds from his intellectual circlejerk undergrad friends, i.e. not Gass, Joyce, Gaddis, McElroy, Pynchon. But also not overly obscure, to the point where they're trying to be a special snowflake.

>Maybe someone like Amy Hempel, or better yet, a non-American writer of some renown in literary circles, like Kawabata. Dunno. I would add Barthelme, but he probably fits into that first category I listed above, because his reputation (and Barth's) basically boils down to being le clever pomo man.

Trying this hard...

I don't talk to people, people talk to me, unrealistic question.

he would say something about how the concept of favorites is utterly jejune and people who buy into it are the same types who take buzzfeed quizzes

>weak-willed pleb unable to perform judgement detected
Unless you're a woman, in which case you're excused.

A book I've read maybe even recently. That way we can jointly talk about it.

>utterly jejune

Eh, I try not to be too self-conscious about these things. If a particular post gets me thinking, then I'll just indulge the train of thought to its end. Judge me if it pleases you, user-kun

>that one user who absolutely loves to namedrop but goes through leaps of mental gymnastics to convince himself that he's doing anything but

This was disparate rambling that could've easily been spouted from those pesky pseuds that you have such disdain for and are obviously nothing at all like.

Last user was right.

with that attitude it's unlikely you'd even get invited to a party

>dude everything is comparable to everything else and fits neatly into quirky top ten lists I can spout off to impress my drooling slackjawed friends lmao
that's what you sound like right now

>What is the most impressive response you could recieve?

My Twisted World

I really wish they would, I'm completely sober now and it genuinely sickens me to bear witness to these things.

...

Yes, I definitely can define what the best craftsmen and artists within a given field are (assuming I've sufficient knowledge), why can't you?

Anything that indicated they have a personal taste. If they cite a bunch of Japanese lit, even if it's just soseki, mishima, and similarly popular works it shows they know a flavor and they went at it instead of staying wide and safe like the dilettante way.

Memes aside this would be interesting. If I were to encounter a liberal academic or yuppie type who read this book and went into a discussion about how interesting and dynamic Hitler's character was without feeling the perpetual need to nervously state that they don't personally agree with the way that he viewed race relations it would honestly be refreshing.

Oh, and specialists are always the most interesting.

>Personal taste
>Anything but the Western Canon

God damn. The rumors were true. This board is done.

stefany myer

I suppose I'm just not as dedicated to the idea of ranking everything as though it means anything as you are.

out of curiosity what are your favorite works of literature?

David, is that you?

is your friend david a total try hard all the time?

because it might be

I wholly admit to the dastardly crime of name-dropping. But there's something essentially different about name-dropping Gaddis on a website dedicated to literature, whose users post about him every single day, pride themselves on being knowledgeable of a vast array of writers or at least on their desire to read more and more—and name-dropping Gaddis in a comfortable party setting.
In any case, my use of the word "pseud" was meant at least somewhat ironically. Expressing enjoyment of literature while trying to evade the connotations/social context of specific authors is a hard space to navigate for anybody.

An honest response, with reasons why they like the authors/works they mention.

I don't know. He did write a 900 page book with 200 pages of footnotes. So maybe?

Proust!

then we could talk about something completely unrelated

I'm not tremendously invested in literature, but I guess Paradife Loft, La Chanson de Roland, Heimskringla, Sevastopol Sketches, Way of a Pilgrim, Growth of the Soil and Death on Credit.

At least right now.

burroughs, ballard, or gibson

"reading is gay"

>that's what you sound like right now
You don't need to explain this when you greentext. It makes you sound like a 13 girl.

The Lightning and the Sun with a response that isn't 'omg she's crazy'.

I'm sick of only meeting empirically-minded eggshell-steppers with no interest in mysticism beyond the latest health fad, and no concern for the beliefs of the right.

That's all I want, legitimate opinions and discussion about that book. If the person is incapable for reasons other than ignorance of it, then I'd rather not waste my time with them.
13-year-old girls are hot, user.

>13-year-old girls are hot, user.
Only when they shut the fuck up.

>implying

>tfw you find out Max is still living

Pseud detected

I think me should add to the sticky that the only correct response is
>my diary desu
that way we could discreetly recognize other litizens outside

you reminded me of this

youtube.com/watch?v=uwAOc4g3K-g

Nah
Implying what?

I like you. If you brought up Ballard to me at a party I'd go gorillas, I don't know anybody IRL who likes Ballard except maybe my brother (and even then only for Crash).

It's not difficult to remember which authors elicited favorable reactions from you, how weak-willed are you?

Fucking imgur

lurk more

that's a dumb question, I'd rather ask what are they currently reading, If they come up with at least something a bit interesting then that would impress me. It means nothing that you read a couple authors years ago.

dozens of authors produced works I enjoyed, to list them off would be the height of banal navel gazing

I'd much rather discuss them. If you were to ask such a nebulous question as "hurr whats ur favorite book??? XD" I'd probably sneer at you in disgust and walk away

Pseud detected

no u

bourgeoisie*
scum

The Vedas, Bible, or the Quran