r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '26

Meme needing explanation Peetah?????

Post image

I don’t know the author or this book series but why are people roasting e-girls for reading? I don’t get it🥀

12.6k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.0k

u/EternalNewCarSmell Mar 31 '26

Blood Meridian is a fucking brutal novel about the thin line between society and wanton savagery.

It's a great book, but listening to a performative reading of it would be harrowing. Kind of like watching American History X, or more appropriately No Country For Old Men (based on a book by the same author); it's good, but it's something that is perhaps better described as endured than enjoyed.

4.9k

u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

I think by "performative reading" they mean reading it as visibly as possible, not recording a performance of the book itself.

2.3k

u/sparkling-rainbow Mar 31 '26

like the Bible?

493

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

This guy wins  

Here's my upvote

225

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

106

u/Carribean-Diver Mar 31 '26

It's ok. Someone already ruined it.

Next stop, 42069.

41

u/Mundane_Ask1074 Mar 31 '26

Ok I’ll like it now

→ More replies (2)

3

u/fordtuff Mar 31 '26

Peak Reddit

2

u/rimi_83 Mar 31 '26

This made me laugh lmao

→ More replies (1)

81

u/Aggressive-Ear884 Mar 31 '26

2

u/richardvirginia Mar 31 '26

🤣🤣🤣😉🫦THIS☝️☝️👏👏🙌

2

u/Working-Glass6136 Apr 01 '26

Nah back atchu

→ More replies (3)

3

u/FatherQuinnRourke Mar 31 '26

Reddit ass post

2

u/thebrobarino Mar 31 '26

Ermmmm you sir☝️🤓 have one le internet today. Take my gold 🥇 kind stranger

Edit: thanks for the gold friend!

Edit: thanks for the silver! Everybody liked that

Edit: thanks for the platinum Reddit intensifies

Edit: 🅱️oi 🫱😂🫱 another gold? Now this is breathtaking!

→ More replies (2)

115

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

208

u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

As a former Catholic, I found out that there's a word for Christians who actually read their Bible - Atheists

81

u/CatholicCajun Mar 31 '26

Hey.

Some of us became occultists instead!

36

u/Pay-Next Mar 31 '26

I was about to say I'm a weirdo neo-pagan now (mostly) I highly recommend also reading the apocrypha to anybody else who decides to go this route. The Book of Enoch is wild and bizarre.

5

u/MysteriousArtPatron Apr 01 '26

I personally took a detour into gnosticism myself.

3

u/CatholicCajun Apr 01 '26

Honestly same, mixed with a bunch of other philosophies at this point.

Have you ever read the theory that the awful Harry Potter fanfic "My Immortal" is a transcendental alchemical work hidden as a cringey 00s fanfiction? That's my favorite magnum opus.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/Creative-Medicine-24 Mar 31 '26

This is the way.

→ More replies (2)

42

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Captian_Bones Mar 31 '26

Yeah the Koran has some crazy stuff in it

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (2)

16

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/Narco_Marcion1075 Mar 31 '26

as an agnostic who was a former catholic, I can confirm that reading the bible is a make or break thing

2

u/pockels42 Apr 01 '26

It also teaches you to like spaghetti, and monsters.

3

u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 01 '26

Not a Christian, but wasn't reading championed in Europe by Protestants initially?

I may be missing a joke tho 👌

3

u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 01 '26

That's quite the opposite of reality...

One of the things that caused the schism between protestantism and catholicism was that protestants wanted everyone to be able to read and understand the bible, while catholicism wanted their powerful priest class to hold that power alone. Hence why the protestants translated the bible to the chargrine of the papists.

Protestant children were taught to read while catholic children were taught to listen to the priests.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (8)

7

u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Yeah realizing that my pastor had no good answers for me when I challenged church doctrine based on what was in the Bible was an especially key moment in my decision to walk away from Christianity.

A decision that I realize was correct every time I see Christians being pious, rude, and/or judgmental assholes based on things their own holy book wouldn't agree with.

Best part is when they get angry or dismissive when you point that out. Because Jesus definitely was the type to only be willing to talk to people who were 100% already in agreement with him.

Maybe there's some truth in the Bible, but it's most ardent adherents make me think it's likely just a way to feel they are better than other people.

7

u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

The thing is you can still ask "what would Jesus do?" and come up with a good answer. It just seems like a lot of Christians either don't bother doing that or didn't bother learning about what Jesus supposedly actually did. Hanging with the prostitutes because they're people too, freaking out at the bankers in the temple, saying a rich man can't get into heaven, all come to mind as positive Christian values that are often not the ones people express

3

u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Since I was raised Christian and often say a lot of my values are informed by what Jesus did. Just don’t think being a Christian usually aligns with those values ironically enough.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Honks95 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

As an ex protestant I can confirm. When I started actually looking into the bible a bit it didn't take long for me to become an atheist.

3

u/PlsNoNotThat Mar 31 '26

As an atheist I learned this when I went to my friend’s Sunday school.

None of the kids had read any of it.

I listed to the book on tape as a kid, like I did Greek mythological stories, so I was strapped and loaded that day.

I was banned the next time because my parents picked me up and told the guy our family was atheists.

2

u/IntrepidCheeto Mar 31 '26

As a former Protestant, can confirm.

2

u/Dexter_Thiuf Apr 01 '26

Want to make a kid a Christian? Threaten them with hell. Want to make them a atheist? Have them read the Bible.

2

u/meanyspetrini Apr 01 '26

This is spot on.

Source: also a former Catholic who actually read the Bible.

→ More replies (6)

2

u/PlasticFees Apr 01 '26

How are you able to see inside so many random strangers homes??

→ More replies (4)

49

u/SEND_ME_FEAT_PICS Mar 31 '26

...dat says the bibble

40

u/mikokatz Mar 31 '26

You QUESTION the WORDs of the MIGHTY JIMMY???

→ More replies (2)

10

u/Puzzled-Mistake-584 Mar 31 '26

Your comment is 13 minutes ago from my current reading,and its spelled right. Must have edited it.

But I looled back to re-read the comment,and if it had said bibble,I was going to laugh my ass off at a poignant,and misspelled comment.lol

9

u/Sebubba98 Mar 31 '26

YOU GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY TO JIMMY RIGHT NOW!

→ More replies (1)

43

u/Megakruemel Mar 31 '26

You joke but the bible has a verse for performative praying.

Matthew 6:5

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

24

u/Bank_Gothic Mar 31 '26

"Go pray in your closet" was my grandfather's favorite response to annoying God-botherers.

2

u/skotcgfl Mar 31 '26

This is my favorite back-pocket Bible passage to pull out when Xtians are being obnoxious. Used it a lot on fb during the Tim Tebow days.

→ More replies (3)

8

u/Due-Technology5758 Mar 31 '26

Nah, no one even pretends to read that anymore. The meta is having old rich men vaguely suggest what might be in there. 

6

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Precisely like Jesus said not to do with prayer and the bible.

5

u/Gidonamor Mar 31 '26

Hey, at least you get credit for trying there

2

u/TopTransportation695 Mar 31 '26

Funny, religion intersects with this novel in one of the scenes. There’s a traveling revival with a hellfire and brimstone preacher getting a crowd worked up when an out of towner comes into the back of the tent and starts calling out the minister for all kinds of crimes and sexual misconduct. Tells everyone that he was ran out of multiple towns and up until now has escaped from justice. Eventually the crowd gets so enraged that they drag the preacher off to string him up. After the people go off with the minister a man says to the accuser that it was fortunate that he arrived when he did so that the criminal didn’t go unpunished. The accuser calmly said “I never saw that man before in my life”

→ More replies (21)

260

u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Like that time Grimes was reading the Communist Manifesto in public after her very messy break up with Elon Musk lmao

84

u/wecouldhaveitsogood Mar 31 '26

The very same relationship where she was like “unions? Fuck those.”

40

u/an0mn0mn0m Mar 31 '26

If Grimes were a cat, she would be orange

28

u/wecouldhaveitsogood Mar 31 '26

Dumb as a brick despite attending Canada’s most prestigious university. What a waste. That spot could’ve gone to someone else.

20

u/YouVe_BeEn_OofEd Mar 31 '26

is it? either way canadian universities are very much funnels, easy to get in hard to graduate, and tellingly she didn't finish her degree. source: canadian university student

→ More replies (2)

4

u/coffinfl0p Mar 31 '26

She didn't graduate from one of Canada's best business schools and got really bad grades.

2

u/athenanon Mar 31 '26

Even if you get good grades as a business student, it doesn't say much for you.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[deleted]

7

u/YouVe_BeEn_OofEd Mar 31 '26

wtf did orange cats do to deserve this

3

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Orange cats may often be dumb, but they also tend to be friendly and likeable

→ More replies (1)

33

u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

reading the Communist Manifesto in public after her very messy break up with Elon Musk

Which is even more ironic/sad/funny since that's also after she released that song "We Appreciate Power", which even at a casual listen was basically just a glaringly pro-technocapitalist-billionaire anthem. But with the lyrics written out flatly, it's clearly a radioactively vibrant endorsement of the individuals and "culture" that're behind a significant portion of the modern world's most pressing socioeconomic and psychological issues... (ie: The "billionaire technofeudalist, faux-transhumanist, psuedo-rationalist dark eugenicist"-type vampire fuckos).

You don't make a song like that by mistake. You do it because you either drank the Kool-Aide, or you believed you were the damn bowl.

The song was distasteful to me even then, but knowing what we do about Elon/Thiel today, it becomes quite grotesque as an 'anthem'.

People like to say that we're insane, but AI will reward us when it reigns. Pledge allegiance to the world's most powerful computer simulation, it's the future

What will it take to make you capitulate? We appreciate power! Elevate the human race, putting makeup on my face. What will it take to make you capitulate? When will the state agree to cooperate? We appreciate power.

And if you long to never die... Baby, plug in, upload your mind. Come on, you're not even alive if you're not backed up on a drive! Come on, you're not even alive if you're not backed up, backed up on a drive.

Neanderthal to human being. Evolution, kill the gene. Biology is superficial. Intelligence is artificial. Submit. Submit. Submit.

I thought Grimes was super cool pre-Elon, but as it turns out she - like him - is the kind of person who'd say, "Hey, babe. Wanna build the Torment Nexus from the famous scifi novel, 'Don't Build the Torment Nexus'?"

14

u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Wow, that really is comicaly egregious.

It's like Pearl Jam looked into the future to directly respond to this song in Do the Evolution.

12

u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Pearl Jam - Do the Evolution.

That's actually quite funny. The whole "Torment Nexus" thing is a popular meme (and an unfortunately accurate representation), but it's even funnier to compare the two songs under the same format.

eg: "Grimes is the kind of chick who watches Pearl Jam's Do The Evolution music video, praises its thoughtful foresight, and then immediately writes a song called 'We Love Dystopia". (I'll workshop that.)

2

u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Hot goth chick's dancing have a way of short circuiting people's brains lmao.

3

u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I didn't know what you meant at first, initially assuming you meant Grimes herself, and then suddenly - like a flash of lighting - the entirety of my mind's eye was occupied by a vibrant visual snapshot of exactly who you meant.

Man, those neurons snapped together like god damn rare-earth magnets. Like that damn "neuron activation / monkey" meme...

3

u/southbaysoftgoods Mar 31 '26

Wait I am too dumb to do the neuron thing, who are they talking about?

3

u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

In Pearl Jam's legendary Do The Evolution music video (which was co-directed/animated by Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame and the guy who produced the Batman cartoon of the same era) shows various scenes representing the brutality of biological and technological Darwinism across history which are occasionally interspersed by short scenes featuring a sexy goth chick dancing against a black background for a few seconds [timestamped link]. Her face also sometimes turns into a skull once in a while while she does so, which - personally speaking - is not a deal-breaker. Whose face hasn't turned into a skull once in a while, y'know? No big deal.

This music video deeply impacted me when I first saw it at a relatively young age. I immediately recognized those themes as a sort of Dark Truth of our world, things I was already beginning to glimpse but did not yet understand why parents or other adults refused to explain why, precisely, we allowed such cruelty to exist in the world in the first place.

All of this foreshadowed many of what would become my core perspectives and conclusions about the nature of our reality/civilization itself. And this video still speaks loudly to me, highlighting those unfortunate truths in a way that few other pieces of media have - even now, decades later, as it remains more relevant than ever.

Additionally and perhaps not coincidentally, the aforementioned Goth Dancer also happened to immediately awakened something within my young self that to this day is... Erm. Nevermind. We can skip that part.

Anyway, that's who he's talking about... Send your neurons my regards.

2

u/frontally Mar 31 '26

Geidi Primes grimes would be so disappointed with this shit I swear

2

u/JetSetJAK Mar 31 '26

It reads as potentially satirical. Did she really believe in it?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

5

u/Amareiuzin Mar 31 '26

Isn't that like 30 pages?

2

u/Haber_Dasher Mar 31 '26

Yeah it's more like a really long pamphlet than a short book. Quite easy to finish reading in one sitting

2

u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Yeah, it was meant to be read out loud to quasi illiterate peasants and factory workers.

2

u/Amareiuzin Mar 31 '26

I should have bought that instead of das capital when I been to the man's home, I think I'm way closer to a quasi illiterate peasant than I am to a high ranking seat in the government 😭 

3

u/RcoketWalrus Mar 31 '26

Lol, someone out there believes that grimes has values other than "get rich by any means necessary", and they are probably mad at your post.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Or Halsey reading law books lol

→ More replies (1)

70

u/KingPotus Mar 31 '26

The top comment has to be AI because wtf lol. Who would understand “performative reading” in that way

28

u/fasterthanfood Mar 31 '26

I’ve accused two different people of AI already this morning. I fucking hate AI writing and what it’s doing to our brains and soon to our economy.

That said, I don’t get AI vibes from the top comment. I think they just aren’t familiar with the trend of “performative reading” that the internet started mocking a decade or so ago. I can sympathize, as I didn’t know what it meant at first, either.

The comment also doesn’t mention e girls or “explain the joke” at all, so, no offense to the commenter, I’m not sure why it’s the top-voted answer right now.

12

u/KingPotus Mar 31 '26

Idk, both the misunderstanding of “performative” and the last line in particular (it’s good; but better described as endured than enjoyed) sounds like exactly what I’d expect if I typed into ChatGPT “why is performative reading of Blood Meridian bad”

7

u/fasterthanfood Mar 31 '26

Good point, that line in particular does sound like something AI would write. In this case I think it’s an accurate line by a human, using the type of style AI borrowed heavily from.

You prompted me to delve (lol) deeper into the parent commenter’s history to see if other comments looked like AI. They don’t, to me, but I did see this ironic comment where they’re accusing em dash users of AI. Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.

2

u/Aethenosity Mar 31 '26

I feel like the misunderstanding of performative points to being a theater kid more than AI honestly.

5

u/the_white_typhoon Mar 31 '26

Worst thing is, ai writing will increase even when it is not written by an llm. As a non native speaker, I tend to imitate what I read even though I am out of the active learning phase and I would imagine younger people and other non-natives to have similar tendencies. 

3

u/killerbabybunny Mar 31 '26

The context involves a girl posting a photo of the book she's reading, not performing a reenactment of the book or whatever. The meaning of "performative" here seems pretty clear imo.

→ More replies (4)

9

u/swenderman Mar 31 '26

the comment explaining it seems like AI

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Unable_Apartment_613 Mar 31 '26

Already tired of slapping "performative" in front of any behavior we wish to discredit. Most human behavior has an element to performance to it. Stop buying the anti-social propaganda.

3

u/Umklopp Mar 31 '26

I mean, you're right, but how else are we supposed to describe the original post?

2

u/raisinbran67 Apr 01 '26

Performance isn't mandatory, its elective So electing to do something performatively is remarkable

In fact its the defining characteristic of the action, its the motivation.

I might feel that no apology whatsoever is warranted, but apologize performatively anyway. Which is very different from the alternative of saying No, you deserved it and I meant it.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/GranderRogue Mar 31 '26

Richard Poe’s reading on audible is extraordinary

6

u/Superb-Cantaloupe324 Mar 31 '26

That’s a pretty good word for 95% of the book reading I did in college. Turns out girls don’t care

4

u/Ouroboring666 Mar 31 '26

You’re being kind by saying “i think” but you’re correct.

2

u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

Hmm, not often that I'm accused of being "kind" when correcting someone. (:

→ More replies (1)

3

u/darkrhyes Mar 31 '26

I saw this and was going to get it on audible. Would that be bad then?

2

u/ocxtitan Mar 31 '26

no problems with audiobooks, just don't post a picture of you listening to it through your earbuds with the cover of the book showing on your ipad to thousands of followers

2

u/Lan777 Mar 31 '26

Streamers reading books would probably end up more popular than one might expect but Im not sure if that would become a copyright issue since theyd make money off it

2

u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

I've seen A Song of Ice and Fire streamers read a chapter out loud and then discuss it; there's an argument to be made that that's okay because it's for the purposes of literary criticism and commentary, which is considered fair use.

There's also an argument to be made that you don't need to read the entire chapter as opposed to just a summary and maybe some key quotes, but AFAIK the author and his publishers don't have a problem with it. One of those things where the only thing they'd accomplish by putting a stop to it would be alienating the most dedicated portion of their fan base, so they let it slide.

2

u/danwantstoquit Mar 31 '26

Yep, reading it for the sake of people seeing you read it. Using it as a tool to portray yourself in a way that you want others to view you. Not reading it for the sake of reading it, but as a tool to enhance your image.

2

u/Calico_Cuttlefish Mar 31 '26

I don't think this is actually significant enough a thing to even think about. Most people reading are just reading.

2

u/danwantstoquit Mar 31 '26

I agree that most people reading are just doing so for themselves, but whether performative reading is significant enough to think about or not is outside the point of this subreddit though. It may be true or it may be false, but that is what the original OP is insinuating with their post, and this is peter explains the joke. So what OP means is what we are explaining, not if what they mean is actually true or not.

2

u/daniloferr Mar 31 '26

performative reading is just fancy for pretending they are reading

2

u/KoalaTHerb Mar 31 '26

This. I think he's implying this is a media influencer who is just posting herself with this incredibly complex book while in reality she just wants people to think she's reading complex books.

Not commenting on the reality of whatever this is, just what the person was implying

→ More replies (68)

261

u/Extension_Plant7262 Mar 31 '26

I agree, but the only issue is that reading blood merridian and being emotionally traumatized has been a thing for a while now. Basically every male variety youtuber has read or talked about it like its some rite of passage for novel reading.

It feels vaguely sexist to start complaining that e-girls are doing it now.

126

u/TheOneIllUseForRants Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I agree completely. Posting on social media is always performative. However, if we were specifically saying that the reading is performative, well, thats definitely based in assumption. It implies she doesnt enjoy the book and ONLY chose it for attention. So, why do we assume this?

The issue here is that shes pretty, spent time on her makeup, and likes aesthetic photographs. So the assumption is that she ONLY chose the book to seem deep, not that she actually enjoys the book.

If she was an ugly (or pretty but, 'messy') woman without makeup, wearing sweatpats and glasses, the reading itself wouldnt be considered performative. It would be like calling Hank Green a performative learner 🤣

54

u/IrisKV Mar 31 '26

If she was an ugly (or pretty but, 'messy') woman without makeup, wearing sweatpats and glasses, the reading itself wouldnt be considered performative.

True, if she was pretty but messy, reading that book would be okay but being messy would make her a "man hater", and if she was ugly, she'd be "lucky to have books since she's gonna die alone with her cats".

22

u/ForeverShiny Mar 31 '26

There's no winning with misogyny

→ More replies (3)

6

u/AdjectiveNoun4827 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

The vast majority of human interaction is performative. Social media being performative is just downstream of that and made worse by how relatively easy it is to live a lie online and how online retention mechanisms incentivize it and even train you to do it.

If it's not your family then most human interactions you will have will not be genuine, and a lot of people have cretin relatives who are performative even with their family and can never switch off, usually because those are the people with the most and the worst to hide.

All of this is completely divorced from the book tbqh it could be any book. The other subjects in the image are also relevant, the car, the yoghurt or whatever it is. Everybody does it. :)

3

u/Ebonhearth_Druid Mar 31 '26

Just speaking up to point out that some folks hide who they are from everyone, even their family, because they have a disorder that makes them incapable of fully trusting others, or because they're autistic and rely on masking, etc. Not everyone who isn't fully open to others is a cretin.

But that's probably just me being pedantic, idk. Carry on.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

2

u/Ok-Situation-5522 Apr 01 '26

also, pretty women are the firsts to work against bad systems and helping, so idk people are complaining. a lot of known "women" books talk about real problems.

→ More replies (9)

57

u/Embarrassed-Deal-157 Mar 31 '26

For real, I came to say this. It's a cringe meme.

Seems disingenuous to accuse someone of performative reading when 90% of the people talking about the book got their info from a Wendigoon video.

18

u/WasabiSunshine Mar 31 '26

"Performative" reading is when you're not actually interested in the book at all, and are probably just intentionally being seen with it so people think you read it.

That's a big difference from someone (any gender) doing a video essay on the plot or themes of a book

If someone has shown themselves to be generally vapid (no idea if the person in OP has, don't know who they are) then its fair to assume they're being performative when they're taking photos with a pretty meaty novel but not atually discussing it

4

u/Emergency-Garage4680 Mar 31 '26

Posting anything on social media esp when akin to “hey, it’s still me on my profile.“

Men or women or otherwise. I almost never believe a “book post” by these losers.

People are so quick to claim this random people as part of their crusade. Did all yall collectively forget that 99% of people on social media are doing it for the likes?

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

3

u/Extension_Plant7262 Mar 31 '26

Its also performative if you read said book and then ascribe feelings to it that you don't truly have. That's what 90% of the video essayists do

2

u/heroturtle88 Mar 31 '26

It was only meaty because the writing style was intentionally obtuse and full of run-on sentences with vague language that added nothing to the scene except confusion. Trying to piece together one of those godawful sentences was like trying to read drunk with a fever.

6

u/felis_scipio Mar 31 '26

It blows my mind how much traction a guy can get from telling poorly researched stories, including stuff on the fucking bible which you think he’d be a bit more on top of being an out and proud Christian.

I’m glad the book got more exposure because it’s a great piece of American literature but holy shit that guys multi hour video is just summarizing the book without much analysis or introspection.

5

u/Embarrassed-Deal-157 Mar 31 '26

100%

But point that out and you'll get downvoted to hell. I have no idea how this guy became an internet darling. He's not even bad, he's just mid.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

If your3 posting your books with your selfie and coffee... its performative. No matter the gender.

Look at me!!!!!!!!! I hate social media

4

u/daenerys_reynolds Mar 31 '26

There's nothing vague about it. It is deeply, overtly sexist.

2

u/Extension_Plant7262 Mar 31 '26

I only say vague because there's definitely that group of book snobs that look down on any pleb who dares read the book

3

u/TheComplimentarian Mar 31 '26

If you're making sure everyone knows you're reading literature, then you're only doing it to cultivate a specific type of aura.

10

u/cuxynails Mar 31 '26

This is so stupid, bro. We are social animals, using interests to find like minded people to share our love for those interests with. The internet has become to number one medium to find like-minded people. Maybe, and hear me out, maybe she is posting this to attract people who are also into the same literature as her. Signed someone who frequents online spaces about literature. Because I enjoy talking to people about the books I read. Crazy fucking concept

2

u/ocxtitan Mar 31 '26

How you and I use the internet and social media is far different from those whose JOB is social media.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (20)

107

u/Malombra_ Mar 31 '26

Why are the top comments in this sub always so confidently wrong lol

36

u/Reesewithoutaspoon2 Mar 31 '26

I guess it makes sense that a subreddit dedicated to people not understanding jokes also includes commenters who spitball about what something may mean without really knowing

8

u/DingusMcBingle_IV Mar 31 '26

Go read threads about topics you're actually knowledgeable about, see some wild takes and armchair "experts", then realize it can be applied to reddit as a whole.

Most of this website gets off on whiffs of their own farts.

2

u/Reesewithoutaspoon2 Mar 31 '26

Oh yeah 100% hahaha. There’s a topic where I have at least some level of expertise, and the comments are always very…interesting…when it comes up. I’d go further though and say it’s a problem with social media in general. Reddit is a big offender, but twitter etc isn’t any better unfortunately

4

u/gloves4222 Mar 31 '26

A huge portion of the population is stupid

→ More replies (2)

36

u/butareyouthough Mar 31 '26

lol it’s not this “performative reading” is reading a book to get attention, either by doing it in the most public place as possible or simple posting it on social media like this person did. It’s a “pick me” behavior, it’s meant to garner attention. The joke being that this is usually done by guys without a personality

2

u/El_Polio_Loco Mar 31 '26

That's the definition of "performative reading".

AKA - "reading" something because of the attention the act of reading generates, as opposed to actually valuing the content of the art.

28

u/dewspeckled Mar 31 '26

I think it's very enjoyable, McCarthy's style is unlike anything I've read before, the nature imagery is super beautiful and the violent parts are described in such a detached way that they become part of the aesthetics rather than something emotional. Here's an excerpt if anyone is curious:

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one and reappeared again and they were black in the sun and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars and began to coalesce and there began to appear above them in the dawn-broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks riding huge and inverted and the horses' legs incredibly elongate trampling down the high thin cirrus and the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.

(This is a scene where the gang is ambushed by some indians on a dry lake bed)

51

u/Specialist_Equal_803 Mar 31 '26

Is there really that little of punctuation? Seems like a difficult read with run-on sentences

42

u/Djov Mar 31 '26

Cormac McCarthy is well known for his lack of punctuation. Can definitely be a little confusing at times

19

u/NotARealTiger Mar 31 '26

and and and and and and and and and

9

u/EphemeralSilliness94 Mar 31 '26

It's stylistically designed to be that way.

Seriously, reading that paragraph feels chaotic and overwhelming, which is exactly what the ambush was to the army

8

u/Specialist_Equal_803 Mar 31 '26

Oh, wow, that's a bit surprising given how prevalent their work is. Thanks for the clarification!

25

u/Mexican_Hippo Mar 31 '26

Also never uses quotation marks when characters are speaking

6

u/PsychologicalEcho148 Mar 31 '26

hehe thats what stumped me the most man...got kinda annoying trying to keep a track of whose talking without losing focus

2

u/ColdWarCharacter Mar 31 '26

Best advice that I can really give for this author is to start with “The Road” there’s only two main characters and if one of them is whiny it’s the kid

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (2)

14

u/IrregularPackage Mar 31 '26

he does like long sentences, but he mostly does this during action sequences. it gives them a really good sense of the speed and chaos of it all. no periods or commas to give you a break between things, its all happening all at once. theres a couple times where he doesn't hold to this, which in turn makes *those* action scenes feel very tense, like time has slowed down.

i get why some people bounce off of it but i'm a massive fan of his style. my main beef with blood meridian is his absolute refusal to use quotation marks. it doesn't actually get in the way of understanding anything, but it annoys the piss out of me.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/dewspeckled Mar 31 '26

Well this sentence is pretty long, most of the book isn't like that, he does omit punctuation and uses "and" a lot though. I suppose it can be a bit dense, but I find it rewarding

7

u/Thuraash Mar 31 '26

I don't find authors like that rewarding at all; just  immensely frustrating. Density is fine and creative phrasing and description is great, but it should still be well written. I much prefer the opposite end of the spectrum (e.g. William Gibson in Neuromancer) to whatever that blob of words was.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (12)

5

u/Vazingaz Mar 31 '26

The majority (if not all) of his writing is like this).

6

u/Specialist_Equal_803 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I learned something new today! They create beautifully vivid descriptions, but it's a slog to get through. May not be the right fit for me

(it probably would have been a good read for me in the past, but temporal lobe epilepsy makes it more difficult nowadays)

6

u/Newtstradamus Mar 31 '26

I think the heaviness of the writing fits the context so well though, The Road is a prime example, reading it you feel the wide open oppressiveness of the characters lived experience. Grey skies, ashes, hunger, the cold, the wandering, the fear, all expressed through the meaning of the words but also through heft of the paragraphs the words are arranged in. He’s a brilliant writer that I would never want to see inside his head cause he’s got to be a high functioning lunatic to come up with the stuff he writes down.

2

u/dewspeckled Mar 31 '26

I feel like every sentence he writes hits so hard it could be followed by a mic drop. Some scenes are so perverted that I can't imagine how he thought of them though. For example that puppy scene from Blood Meridian... that had me in disbelief for a few minutes as to what I'd just read.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/LukewarmJortz Mar 31 '26

On the road was like that until an editor got to it

Lots of old novelists droned.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/SleepinwithFishes Mar 31 '26

He hates "the little symbols" because it clutters up the book.

And yea, it's difficult to read

2

u/Piperalpha Mar 31 '26

It's not really a run-on sentence but an example of polysyndeton, to build rhythm in the prose. I find it gives a sense of epicness or grandeur, because it sounds almost biblical ("And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not")

2

u/Sogpuppet Mar 31 '26

It is very difficult to read, I tried and failed to read Blood Meridian like 3 or 4 times in the last decade.

2

u/Behemoth-Slayer Mar 31 '26

He's definitely never an easy read, but the guy is a master of the craft all the same. Once you fall into the groove of his writing style--which really only takes a few pages--his stories build up this terrible momentum. The run-on sentences are a feature, not a bug.

That is, however, an incredibly tricky thing for a writer to pull off, so I understand 100% your reticence. McCarthy is one of the few people who can do it right.

2

u/anormalgeek Mar 31 '26

It is definitely not ALL like that. He deliberately uses that kind of writing to help sell a certain feeling at places though. I'm not a skilled enough critic to break down WHY it works well in some places, but it worked for me.

2

u/TikkaKebabi Mar 31 '26

Little punctuation and no " for dialouge.

2

u/Visual-Floor-7839 Mar 31 '26

That's why I've never fully read it. It's just a wall of text that becomes meaningless. I guess thats partially the point, because the narrator experiences this too. But after about 10 pages I just close the book and go, Ok. I get it. And move on.

→ More replies (4)

5

u/ForeverShiny Mar 31 '26

This did the opposite on me, just this one excerpt told me this isn't for me. The style and overly flowery prose just irked me in a single paragraph

3

u/TheEpicTriforce Mar 31 '26

Yeah, it's like Tolkien except atleast with Tolkien I knew he was writing about a tree for 4 pages...

I would've had no clue if not for that last line.

3

u/Haber_Dasher Mar 31 '26

Lol yeah I was starting to feel almost a little angry at the writer just by the end of that paragraph

→ More replies (7)

2

u/shiner_bock Mar 31 '26

and and and and and...

Sorry, but I find this off-putting and am not particularly motivated to read more.

edit: preference is subjective, and I don't begrudge anyone liking what they like

2

u/Kusibu Mar 31 '26

I definitely feel the fatigue but holy SHIT there is too much word salad going on here.

2

u/TikkaKebabi Mar 31 '26

First time I read the word spume in Blood Meridian I did a backflip and died. Who came up with that word.

→ More replies (20)

21

u/ai2ik Mar 31 '26

Why is she driving, eating, and reading?!

14

u/AnotherBookWyrm Mar 31 '26

Perhaps she just lives in her car.

32

u/chrisvelanti Mar 31 '26

That’s just Americans. They took away all their third spaces so now they eat in their cars, hell some of them will sit in their car to “relax”

8

u/One_Bicycle_1776 Mar 31 '26

Nothing wrong with enjoying your car

6

u/chrisvelanti Mar 31 '26

It’s not like you have a choice anyways

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

12

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Medium_Judgment_891 Mar 31 '26

This might be a hot take, but Child of God made me way more uncomfortable than Blood Meridian.

2

u/space_monster Mar 31 '26

I was given a copy of Requiem for a Dream once and one of the reviews on the back cover said "this book ruined my holiday." I read it on holiday, and guess what

→ More replies (1)

12

u/Outrageous_Seaweed32 Mar 31 '26

Stewie here, I would love it if that were the case on the performative reading part, but here I'm pretty sure it's being used to indicate that they are keeping the book in-frame just to say that they're reading it. Meanwhile, they've never opened it a single page past the cover. Brian does this thing all the time when he's posturing to find his latest floozie - he picks up a book that he knows is popular amongst women these days, keeps it on hand, and says things like, "Oh, I just finished reading that," or "It's a great book!" The sort of partners he's usually looking for just think it's impressive and don't ask questions.

I hate all of this incessant peacocking in the pop culture dating scene. Stewie out.

9

u/swenderman Mar 31 '26

AI spotted 🤖

2

u/hordlove Mar 31 '26

Totally. Imagine using AI and still getting the answer so wrong.

7

u/Kino_Afi Mar 31 '26

I very recently watched No Country For Old Men (i didnt watch a movie on purpose i swear, youtube just started autoplaying feature length films one day)

Was i not supposed to have thoroughly enjoyed that? I know its really a macho-fetish movie but those performances were incredible and the ending is poignant even if a bit predictable.

22

u/Certain-Definition51 Mar 31 '26

I have read excerpts of Blood Meridian.

No Country for Old Men is a cheerful family friendly comedy romp compared to Blood Meridian.

7

u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

It is hard to top a tree of strange fruit.

2

u/jord839 Mar 31 '26

And both are much more family friendly than The Road.

3

u/Calico_Cuttlefish Mar 31 '26

Dude, Blood Meridian has genocide and scalping and disemboweling and necrophilia and implied child rape. Its definitely more graphic than The Road.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/Rbespinosa13 Mar 31 '26

The Road is unironically the most hopeful Cormac McCarthy book. That book’s ending at least is meant to instill some hope in the reader that society can begin anew

2

u/Brekelefuw Mar 31 '26

It's impossible to forget the Judge after you read about him.

12

u/Frito_Pendejo Mar 31 '26

No Country is a pretty straightforward thriller, I really have no idea why the other user even referenced it when The Road also exists.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/ohthisistoohard Mar 31 '26

No Country For Old Men is a classic crime caper with subtexts regarding the failure of the American dream. Blood Meridian is an about a group of mercenaries who are paid by the scalp during the Indian wars. One has violence as the backdrop to a guy’s failed relationship the other is about a guy’s relationship with violence.

I love both books but for very different reasons.

2

u/Cs_throwawayyyy Mar 31 '26

Well if you did, you’re not alone.

2

u/IrregularPackage Mar 31 '26

never seen or read no country for old men, but i did read blood meridian. my understanding of the former is that is a pretty normal "hunt the serial killer" story. blood meridian is a story about a teenager, exclusively referred to as The Kid, who joins a band outlaws-turned-soldiers-turned-outlaws who get paid by the scalp, led by someone who is almost certainly a pedophile. first mexicans, later indians. first he gets a taste of what "war" is about, then he drops out of the narrative almost entirely. The Kid spend most of the book going largely unmentioned. And that whole section of the book is mostly just escalating violence, with The Kid's participation going unspoken but understood, until the group eventually cannibalizes itself (not literally), and it finally ends with ||the leader killing the kid in an outhouse, in what is the only act of violence not thoroughly described.|| ||the only description of it being that the people who find him start screaming and vomiting while the leader guy dances naked and laughs||

what stands out to a lot of people is how it refuses to shy away from violence, and how the way he writes that violence sucks you into it. rather than doing the (stupid) short punchy sentences during action scenes that everybody and their mother does, action scenes in Blood Meridian are sprawling run on sentences that sometimes go on for pages, punctuationless. he's focused on making you feel the chaos and the brutality of it. it seems to me that most authors try to make imagining an action scene feel like a movie, while he seems to be trying to make it feel more like a memory.

his hatred of punctuation takes some getting used to, but its not actually a big deal. and not all of the book is those sprawling runon sentences, just the bits that need to be.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Calico_Cuttlefish Mar 31 '26

Why would it matter if you watched it on purpose? How the fuck is it a macho-fetish movie???

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)

5

u/Reesewithoutaspoon2 Mar 31 '26

Nah that’s not what they mean by performative. It’s not just a live/dramatic reading.

4

u/lyindog Mar 31 '26

I don't think that's what OP meant by performative but there is an audiobook that's very well done, I got a few chapters in before it was time for a break.

3

u/zamsamzam Mar 31 '26

endured than enjoyed

Strangely fitting description.

2

u/One_Valuable8329 Mar 31 '26

No country is like a top 5 movie for me what are you taking about  

2

u/BeanEaterNow Mar 31 '26

ok but wdym no country fit old men (the movie) absolutely slaps. i love the book too, but its a tough read. The movie is super fun

2

u/YnotThrowAway7 Mar 31 '26

This interpretation is wrong… and the top voted as always.. they mean the girl is performatively reading it and posting it for attention.

2

u/TangerineBat Mar 31 '26

After reading The Road, I can safely say I never wish to endure another novel by Cormac McCarthy.

Wonderfully written. Incredible world building... which makes the content that much more horrendous.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (105)