Does it disgust you knowing how little the average person reads...

>freshman English course for the best university in my state
>we're doing peer reviews
>all 5 essays I had to review were barely comprehensible due to the unintelligible grammar and spelling mistakes

It's worth mentioning that I'm 23 now and the students in that class were all 18-19. I think schools in the US have gotten far worse, and kids these days don't read anything other than social media, which only serves to propagate bad English. I am very thankful I managed to be born early enough to skirt the electronic age.

>most people are so ignorant of literature and they seem proud of it for some reason.
I never got this either. If someone doesn't want to read that's on them but why people are always like "lol I haven't read since high school, aren't I so cool xD" is beyond me.
It's like they think they're being rebels or something when in reality the people who don't read are hugely in the majority.

Honestly, reading too much puts me schizophrenically out of touch with everyone else, makes me feel super egotistical, abcedminded and emotionally inept (superficial, cold).

At once that raging monologue sets itself within at such a high volume that I become really deaf to what others have to say. Avid readers tend to have that strange deafness; even those who love dialogue.

Also, there's the awful cocky mastering of paper logic that one takes as a currency for all intellectual activity, and yet typically holds valueless or ineffective in all other aspects of human experiences.

Bookreaders also tend to be unable to think beyond single planes and linearity, and may thus easily collapse with anything demanding simultaneous, total field awareness.

So it does not entirely upset me that people don't read much.

YES. Well said.

This is my experience exactly.

No, because the world would be impossible to rule if everyone read

I find it hard to be upset by this though. They don't try as hard to impress as people who do read. Usually "I don't read, lol" is the furthest they go into it. Whereas pseuds flex hard and often.

lel books are for fuckin nerds, why read when you could be fuckin chicks

Not really. Veeky Forums reads, and they have strong authoritarian dispositions.

I think there's maybe a correlation with the fact that many people had contact with books only during their school life. Reading books is imposed at school, it requires quite a lot of time and concentration to appreciate any book and if you feel like it's imposed, you would never enjoy it. Spitting at literature becomes the rebel posture. And it's a shame, really. It's certainly not the only explanation, but I think it's the major reason.

underrated

...

this desu famalamadingdong

It doesn't upset me and pseuds are definitely more annoying. I just find it strange that reading gets that reaction from people but other things don't.

If someone took pride in not watching tv it would make sense because that's something a huge majority do and lots consider a waste of time but reading is not a hobby lots of people waste time on.

It would be like someone taking pride in not have a table with model train set up or taking pride in not doing horseback riding.

Honestly, I blame schools. Not because they're not teaching them "right", but because they try as hard as they can to instill a hatred of books. I remember one of my high school teachers specifically choosing one of the lesser-quality 19th century French translated novels *just* because good SparkNotes weren't available for it.

And to be clear, the teacher -- who was kinda young -- literally admitted that he didn't like the book when we were at the end of our discussion period for it.

I also think that focusing so much on a handful of genres in school lit substantially limits people's perceptions of what literature is capable of. I wasn't really aware of crime thrillers, hard science lit, and experimental(-ish) literature (like with Veeky Forums's favorite authors) until I was nearly out of college.

There's so much focus on "teachable" literature that SO much good stuff flies under the radar and, as a result, a massive portion of the American populace gets a twisted notion of what books can be.

>does it disgust you knowing how little the average person reads?
No--it's that much easier to manipulate the proles with my Supreme knowledge that there is no God and that life is intrinsically meaningless. It's taken years of intense study to reach this plane of enlightenment, and if I weren't so convinced of the futility underlying all things, I'd dare to say it's been a rewarding experience.

Many people only got contact with literature during their studies. At school reading books is imposed, and it requires quite a lot of time and concentration to appreciate any book. If you feel like somebody forces you to make something that time-consuming, if you're a teenager the rebel attitude would become more and more tempting. In this situation the rebel attitude is spitting on literature. Of course I don't think it's the only explanation to all those people who hate reading, but I think it's one of the major explanations. Literature can hardly be cool for many people because it's too school-related for them.

about how stupid the average person is?

Not everything revolves around meaningless sex, kiddo. Eventually you get tired of it, I know I did.

Mankind has a greater purpose, we are capable of much more than your petty, decadent, empty hedonism.

We are here to create, to pass a legacy, to contribute to something greater than ourselves, something eternal that will remain long after our temporary meat vessels have decomposed.

As Nietzsche put it, "Companions the Creator seeks, not corpses, herds or believers. Fellow creators the Creator seeks, those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the Creator seeks, and fellow harvesters, for everything about him is ripe for the harvest."

Of course, to do these things, to surpass yourself and become part of something greater, more than human, you need discipline, pain, sacrifice, hard work, courage, truth, determination - everything our indolent, comfortable society scorns.

But at least you got to fuck some bitches before your meaningless existance is over. Good for you.

I feel, thanks to lazy millennial work ethic and the rise of minorities, that the English language will naturally progress into a simplified form, like a sort of Newspeak but without being forced. Spooky t b h

Just like the printing press completely obliterated "higher" forms of language, am i right?

What are you guys reading that makes you feel like that? I'm the opposite...

Some Brothers K, Dubliners, Mrs. Dalloway, Meditations, and I'm feeling more compassionate than ever. Whereas way before I'd rather play video games, these days I'd rather be with people, talking with them, everything.

Yes, it is disgusting. Studying literature (as well as other arts and humanities) is difficult to commodify/monetize and therefore not "useful" within the bullshit utilitarian worldview that most people have (at least in America, where I live). Most people are all in on capitalist ideology and therefore resent these things as being a "waste of time". This is why you have terms like "hipster" to derisively mock anyone with interests falling outside the spectrum of mass culture. It is a very alienating time to be alive.

>Not everything revolves around meaningless sex, kiddo. Eventually you get tired of it, I know I did.

>getting worked up over bait

2/10, I responded

My girlfriend, despite being highly educated(She's a doctor), takes pride in being a pleb. The anti intellectualism in our culture is disturbing.

But Imipolex G never existed in the first place. And the Library of Babel didn't, either. I think you're out of your mind.

You don't have to be old to not do that. I'm 19 but just happen to know how to write correctly because I actually pay attention to language. Idiots will always be idiots and I doubt culture has anything to do with it. It's probably related to how much of a universal rite higher education has become, which serves to lower the bar substantially in order to allow more people to get degrees. There was a time when it was necessary to learn Latin in school.

Are you retarded or am I responding to bait?

I don't believe there are people like this. I think you're making things up.

No, but I often find myself thinking how, in the name of Zeus, can people see a book written in 3000 years before Christ and not have the slightest interest in reading it, regardless of what it is about? It is just absurd to me...

I feel a little sad seeing what people are missing on such great books.

I feel sad, too, when I finish a book that I loved and I can't talk about it to anyone because no one's ever heard of the author name...thanks for listening Veeky Forums

pardon me

3000 years ago, not before Christ

This. I can't adequately emphasize how true this is. I was scared off from literature for a long time in high school because of how much I hated the assigned reading I was given. I think literature would be a much more popular activity if it weren't forced on people at a young age.

i noticed a trend in people thinking reading fiction is for children. kind of pisses me off

>It is a very alienating time to be alive.
That's an extremely ignorant statement. Think about how easy it is with modern communication technology to find others with the same interests. A board like Veeky Forums isn't something that existed only 30 years ago , when people were limited to speaking only with people they knew. Imagine how alienating it would be in such a world for someone with interests even slightly uncommon.

>actually getting b8 threads confused with real life
>tfw i'm writing a serious response to a b8 post

The legacy you're trying to pass on is pretty meaningless too, actually. Your petty struggle is merely a result of your own fear of death, your own fear of your own worthlessness, which you are now trying to divert onto others by assuming some pompous position of sorts due to an assumed and imagined higher level of prestige.

You owe future generations nothing, and most of them won't care for anything you have to offer anyway.

Sex is cool, kid; humans were designed to do it over and over again until the end of time.

will you fuck off you stupid fucking retard moron

idk how to live read this thread if you think it's b8

>DUDE everything is bait

jump off a cliff you waste of skin

These plus the rise of internet (social media, forums, etc) and video games as competitors for sedentary activities in free time. All in all it's pretty disheartening.

Comprehension is such a useful skill yet barely any value is placed on it.

Schools went full retard when designing their literature courses.

One method that was imposed upon me that I actually found effective was forcing every kid to have a book in their backpack at school and requiring them to read whenever they were waiting in class with nothing to do, like after finishing a test and waiting for others to finish. This actually got me and all the kids into my school really into reading and we'd be finishing chapters during recess. The key was to let us read whatever we wanted, as long as we were reading.

I love how Veeky Forums continuously proves itself to not be the fringe place it is thought to be.
At least on Facebook you can get away with dumbass pseudo-rebelliousness like "omg y r people not awake" and people agreeing. It's dumb and faux as fuck, but over here any statement that is against the order of things gets classified as basement dweller tier.
I see the most status quo ideas being spread here imagineable.
And the bullying tone of many anons is mostly one where I imagine some guy in a polo with loafers demanding you just get in line and do your part for the tribe. Be a tool or die and if you do so, make a flip.

In any case.. No, it isn't /r9k/ to be annoyed by this. It's annoying that most people don't read because it causes the same mistakes to happen humanity has been making over and over again.
The sheer fact we have libraries of knowledge at the literal tips of our fingers and hardly anyone is making use of it...
Everyone was laughing how Gary Johnson didn't know where Aleppo was, so it seems like stupid fucking trivia like that is valued after all. And it shouldn't just be him, but everyone who should be more aware of the world around them.

I really fucking hate this "normal people are awesome and you're the problem, and if you disagree, have a strawman of a virgin autist why don't you?".

Like netflix'n'chill? EDM parties? Swiping left on every average looking person? Backpacking to find yourself in a hostel in the gentrified part of town in a third world country? I really want to read some of those quality novels you're talking about that deal with millennial normans their lifestyle.

disgust? no, but it is disappointing.

>the largest city in syria is trivia

>Aleppo
>stupid fucking trivia

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

All that typing just to let slip you're a buttblasted lolbertarian. See you in the FEMA camp, you bawling LARP nazi.

Apparantly asking people in the street to point Russia on the map and getting frustrated over their lack of knowledge is a robot concern.

Normal people are awesome because they are social. This seems to be the new obsession these days. Not only on here but elsewhere I notice this.
Doesn't matter what you can offer, first and foremost you need to be extremely social.

Fine, you read the Greeks, Kafka, Deleuze, whatever.. None of that is valuable.
Have you been going out every Friday is the main question here?

Not really. Sometimes I wonder why I read at all. I guess I have autism or daddy issues or something. Wbu?

Is spanknotes an american thing? I never heard anybody mentioning the site when I was in school (2009 UK) so everybody just dealt with reading it

Maybe. Do you have Cliffs Notes? When I was sin High School, we'd get a book every six weeks, and sometimes they are longish books that you didn't have practice reading.

Thus, notes were helpful for understanding was was going into your head.

I how really doubt any of the four candidates besides Hillary knew what Allepo was before Gary asked. Sorry, but in right and you know it.

I mean we did 'have' them, but I don't remember anyone using them. I'm sure people would have used them if they knew about then considering how illiterate alot of the people my age and youth in general are in the UK.
Now that I think about it, I heard that some of the teachers in other classes would give up making the students read the book and just play the movie or something, leading to horrible exam results from alot of students.

I think a problem is that American schools, besides generally being underfunded and low quality, don't put a lot of emphases on presenting literature that's easy to digest but will also get kids thinking and get them to discuss and argue. The reading kids do in public school is just to meet requirements and kids and teachers don't care about it. There should be some sort of class high schoolers have to take that's just, like, cool but enlightening shit. Like it goes over the history of things that effect them and forces them to think critically about the world around them and makes them read and consider different philosophy and stuff like that. Sorry for rambling and probably sounding like a pseudo intellectual but as someone who graduated high school a few months ago let me tell you public school is fucking failing our kids. It's like 90% wasted time and it doesn't just do nothing it gives kids disdain for learning and education because they make it so boring, orderly and forced.
Not that it's ever really been better, but with how accessible information is and how centralized society is on massive scales right now I feel like we need stop worrying it go to waste.

i enjoy sophisticated car tunes

the problem is the quality of teachers, smart people who actually read are not encouraged to be teachers. just people who failed at whatever they tried. so they were the people who didn't read these books in the first place

It's not just that. There were some really good and passionate teachers at my school but they were held back by shitty curriculum as kids who didn't care and the kids didn't care because elementary and middle school is even worse.

I'm a teacher and I agree. Most of my colleagues couldn't care less about acquiring new knowledge or ideas as soon as they graduated.

imagine bringing porn books to school and being forced to read them

No, because just like every other form of entertainment, most books are shit.

Also, people who brag about being well read are far more annoying than people who don't read at all.
>Let me talk to you about Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea is garbage and you're all pretentious faggots.

>I really want to read some of those quality novels you're talking about that deal with millennial normans their lifestyle.

this desu senpai

...

You're not wrong at all, but
>as someone who graduated high school a few months ago
>our kids
huh?

His books are basically failed normie shit.

The only thing that's disgusting is people who look down on those who don't read, but they're on their tenth reread of Harry Potter. You don't get to be snobby about reading if all you read is young adult garbage.

>all you read is young adult garbage.
everyone who says they read means this

I wish I could beat you IRL

>That's an extremely ignorant statement.
kek. Believe it or not, lots of people feel alienated by "modern communication technology" and modern capitalist society in general. The idea that this is born out of ignorance is so absurd and uncritical that I'm not going to bother engaging with your completely irrelevant 'counter examples'.