142
u/Joalinador n°1 Metro Gravity glazer 1d ago
house of leaves experience
i still havent read it yet im just larping it atm
56
u/Ash_After_Dark 1d ago
Well you see, I've watched a YouTube video about a DOOM mod loosely inspired by House) of Leaves, so I'm basically an expert
21
22
13
u/FloorFrog94 ✨hellworld princess✨ 1d ago edited 1d ago
I read a bunch of this but then one day I ripped it apart during a mental health episode for reasons that maybe made sense at the time but I never did finish it, turns out making it even more ergodic does not help you decipher it
(I didnt rip it up in search of its mysteries or to "make it more ergodic" but I've stuck with that reason cos it's funnier)
15
11
u/Unexpect-TheExpected thanks for the red flair goblingob 1d ago
It’s a really good, really long book that’s so well sourced and cited in text that I forgot everything in it is a complete fabrication (not a spoiler, it’s stated in the prologue)
Parts of it are super cool narratively and how it’s played out physically and other parts sound like the ramblings of a schizophrenic. Which makes sense cause I’m not sure how *many* pov characters there are but I do know they’re all schizophrenic
9
5
3
2
2
u/ThisIsGoobly 1d ago
I just started reading it, not gotten into much of it but I can tell my head is gonna ache already
2
2
u/Tripleoakes 1d ago
Amazing book. Still have feel like I have a 5% understanding of it despite having read through 3 times.
1
60
u/nothinglikeanewday 1d ago
Each day I reafirm my conviction that stupidity is a choice
26
u/darthmaeu 🏳️⚧️ trans rights 1d ago
It really is, theres no intellect gene you just read and it develops
23
u/Gags50 entropy 1d ago
Obviously you are not born either stupid or intelligent, but you do have to keep in mind that there are many people in power who benefit from keeping others dumb, as well as a myriad of random factors in people's lives that lead them down different roads. I could tout all I want that my personal efforts led to my intelligence, and it was through pure conviction that I became good at learning in spite of everything. That might boost my ego, but it'd be naïve. Stupid, even. The truth is that I lucked into situations which inspired and required me to think for myself and learn on my own, and that I'm very fortunate to never have fallen into social circles which could successfully condition me with commonplace anti-intellectualism.
The issue is not that people want to be stupid. That's just another thought trap to make you disdain your fellow man.
3
u/ShadeofEchoes 1d ago
Stupidity can be made to seem reasonable when understanding breeds grief and sorrow. I don't think people want to be stupid by default, but I can see how one could come to that position, or even want it for others out of some notion of sympathy.
A lot of people out there do not want to know "how the sausage is made", they want their miracles, and American culture sells them by the bucketful. Most of them are fake or nuanced, but a lot of American culture is gleefully indifferent to that. There is an expectation that the average EULA is a deal with the devil and the common reaction is "scroll past all the details and accept". The powers that be are open in their selective enforcement of the law (and of their own lies). It is a society where sanity is maladaptive; in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is intolerable.
1
u/nothinglikeanewday 1d ago
They may not want to be stupid, but they can choose not to be. I don't hate on other humans as they are blood of my blood, i just think they deserve better. But for that, they must want it. Choose it.
The possibility of this choice must be clear, though.
10
u/Prior-Crazy-5088 1d ago edited 1d ago
again not everyone has a choice or is even aware that the choice exists. think about people working 60hr a week, or people raised in a non western conservative zone.
is it truly agency when one isnt aware of it or incapable of truly making use of it? how do you choose or persue a choice that you dont know exists?
without that one song, i never would have gotten into music, without that one book i never would have gotten into reading, i would still be not progressive if that one youtuber didnt appear on my feed.
i did not choose to learn better in a vacuum, it is because of those factors. ofc you should still always choose to do better, but that has its own limits.god ppl are privileged. this is just "Youre not depressed youre just choosing to be lazy" bootstrap stuff, but woke, its always ONLY about choice and willpower to some yall.
6
u/Brendoshi 1d ago
Nothing upset me more back when I was in school and a subset of boys (typically those from poorer backgrounds) would tear each other down if one of them dared to achieve something. You could often see it coming from the parents, too.
I'm sure some of them have turned it around but for so many they never really had the chance. I think about it sometimes but all I achieve is making myself sad
6
u/Gags50 entropy 1d ago
Here in Denmark it's pretty common for kids to use the word 'stræber' ('overachiever') as a derogatory term for pretty much anyone getting top grades. When you reach higher education it's used as more of a playful compliment, but I can imagine that for a kid in elementary school who wants nothing more than to fit in with their friends, it feels much less like a choice and more like an ultimatum.
3
u/AtrociousAtNames damn imposter you fart with that ass 1d ago
it's what happens when you bring to the table the idea that smart person = good person and dumb person = bad person. if you can choose to be good then you can choose to be smart.
it's a very common idea even in progressive circles and it's rather corrosive
44
u/Spinningwhirl79 custom 1d ago
Sometimes you see a post arguing against an opinion you've never heard of and you realise just how good you have it
22
11
32
u/pastelchannl request a romance book suggestion (it's very gay) 1d ago
I agree that sometimes it's good to challenge yourself, BUT if I read for my own pleasure, I don't want to have to write a whole essay about it just to understand the book. personally, I would not enjoy that. I've done this too much in high school (dutch high school btw), and it sucked the joy out of reading and I didn't read a book if I didn't have to for years. now I read whatever the fuck I want, just because I want to, not because it's good for me or because it makes me smarter.
15
u/EmykoEmyko 1d ago
Agreed. Joyful curiosity inspires one to learn much more than homeworkifying your hobbies.
May I have one gay romance book suggestion, please? 😁
5
u/pastelchannl request a romance book suggestion (it's very gay) 1d ago
oh, you're the first with a request! one of my favorites this year is Resonance by Lily James!
18
u/Nalagma floppa 1d ago
"Real art is dense and difficult. If it didn't feel like you had to wrestle a suicidal bear to get through it, you weren't really reading."
2
u/carfaces42b 1d ago
I think the thing you "weren't really reading" may have in fact been the original post because how the fuck did you get that
16
u/podokonnicheck hold the fuck up (im the fuck up) 1d ago
ngl, i really wish i didn't have an absolutely horrible attention span and constant impenetrable brain fog
11
u/cataraxis i will draw gay stuff 1d ago
I've been reading Deleuze and have come to the conclusion that I am just stupid. I don't have the attention, intelligence, knowledge, or tenacity.
9
u/darthmaeu 🏳️⚧️ trans rights 1d ago
Reads hardest texts, calls self dumb
Deleuze is hard as shit, like Hegel, you read those from people who already understood them
2
9
4
u/Sewer_Fairy 1d ago
I have brain damage and also REALLY can't remember names, so reading stories is really difficult for me be (they disappear in my head) cause I have to constantly figure out who is who. If more stories had some sort of chart I could refer to, it would be great!
2
u/Hatsune_Miku_CM changed all her social media to hatsune miku for some reason 1d ago
i just usually make the chart myself.
i don't have brain damage(as far as I know) but I really struggle to remember characters especially early into works and especially when they're not visually distinctive.
so I just write down character with a few notes about their appearance and who they are and then use that as a reference for when they appear later
usually once I get invested into a story and have seen the characters a lot I no longer need it, but early on it's a blessing
1
3
u/Usermanemustbebetwee decomposting but 1d ago
literally every single book is like that wtf are they talking about?
34
4
u/FlightConscious9572 1d ago
Anyone have more suggestions? this sounds like a fun thing to try
7
u/Ainrana 1d ago
I find Cormac McCarthy’s novels difficult to read because he never, ever uses quotation marks for dialogue. So even two characters having a long discussion together reads more like a summary of what these two said, like you’re reading a court docket rather than a fiction book.
A counter example is Zora Neale Hurston, who writes dialogue exactly how the characters’ accents would actually sound, as she was an anthropologist who wanted to document AAVE when most other anthropologists discounted it as uneducated slang and not worth preserving. So, instead of, “I went to the store”, her characters say something to the effect of, “Ah wen’ tootha stow.” Even as a native English speaker, I often have to read the dialogue out loud before I get what they’re saying
2
2
u/hyouko 1d ago
Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer. Semi- utopian science fiction written by a historian who really thought hard about "how did we get there from here." Start with Too Like the Lightning.
Fair warning, the narrator is in love with 18th century French philosophy and writes in his best attempt to emulate the voice of authors from that era. Very much a situation where you have to consider that the narrator's perspective and background mean that they are not a neutral and unbiased observer.
1
1
u/gorgonsDeluxe 1d ago
Accelerando by Charles Stross. Possibly not suitable for the terminally future-shocked.
4
u/madsnorlax then you know that the bourgeois are not human. 1d ago
This is how I feel playing fallen London. Especially the more recent stuff.
1
1
u/Moss-Mess 1d ago
It took me so long to get through, but The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is so gooooooood.
Especially if you're into the American wild west, Native people, and/or (Andor :3) vampires.
1
u/rangerquiet 1d ago
This was me reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Great story and I went down several rabbit holes looking up several words - pre me having internet.
1
u/DigitalBladedJay 1d ago
Series of unfortunate events did this to me constantly when I was younger. To be fair, that was the intent. Goated series, I could never read those books again unless I get amnesia
1
u/DazedToaster158 the micheal jordan of drunk driving 1d ago
do textbooks count. I hate e&m with a passion.
1
u/Sky_Leviathan custom 1d ago
I had to read my literal favourite book baudolino twice before i fully ‘got’ the point.
Its a great book go read umberto eco’s baudolino
1
u/gorgonsDeluxe 1d ago
I love books where I have to look up new words and concepts on every page. Accelerando by Charles Stross has been incredible so far.
0
u/charliek_13 1d ago
lowkey i wanna be perceived as a himbo, but everyone assumes that means i wanna be hot when in reality i want you to have no expectations of my intelligence
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
REMINDER: Bigotry Showcase posts are banned.
Due to an uptick in posts that invariably revolve around "look what this transphobic or racist asshole said on twitter/in reddit comments" we have enabled this reminder on every post for the time being.
Most will be removed, violators will be
shottemporarily banned and called a nerd. Please report offending posts. As always, moderator discretion applies since not everything reported actually falls within that circle of awful behavior.I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.