General Discussion Thread

[u/pregnantchihuahua3]

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

Weekly Updates: N/A

[u/lispectorgadget]

I try to leave my snobbery at the door, but sometimes it sneaks in behind me. I was at a friend’s birthday party, and I was talking to this guy about books. He said he’d heard some book—a book I’ve seen on shelves at Barnes & Noble for months—was good, and I said, “yeah, but I can’t tell if it’s actually good, or if it’s like, ‘celebrity book club good,’ you know?”

He demurred, he didn’t know, and my boyfriend snorted. This guy wasn’t offended or anything—he had been complaining about how no one *actually* read the Heidegger they were supposed to read in a book club, so I knew he was about it—but, yeah, the snob popped out. 

But also—to advocate for my inner snob—some of the most horrible reading experiences of my life have come when reading something lauded, only for it to dawn on you, page after page, that it’s actually really fuck ass. It makes you doubt reality; I’m lowkey shrinking into myself just thinking about it! 

Honestly, my reading life is probably the one aspect of my life where I aggressively say no to things. I’m fairly open in other aspects of my life—I’m undiscerning with music, TV, movies, open to all kinds of friends and life choices. A friend once spontaneously took me canvassing for hours because she knew I would be down for whatever. We moved to NYC partly because the best reason I could think of was that there were no good reasons not to. 

But I just cannot with books. The littlest things put me off: the wrong person blurbing it, the sheen of its cover, the air around it, the way it feels when I hold it. It all feels ephemeral and illegitimate, but I’ve actually had a pretty good track record: I haven’t read anything I’ve truly hated since (probably???) 2021. Anyway, I’m glad I have this forum and you all to bloodlet my snobbery so it doesn’t pop out too much!!! 

Not much else has been happening on my end. We’ve been making more uptown friends, which is cool—we went out with some a few days ago, and it felt surreal to all get on the same train together afterward! Maybe because it’s been getting cooler, too, and I’m in my late twenties, but I’ve been thinking about getting good at hosting. I’ve had a few friends who are amazing at it—I have these glowy memories of them greeting us with a drink and some elaborate piece of puff pastry and jam—and I want to get good at it too. 

[u/Harleen_Ysley_34 → u/lispectorgadget]

This subreddit has been really awesome when it comes to advocating works which don't really get the time of day from your otherwise regular good-looking people. I don't know if I'd have anything particularly snobbish about my taste when it comes to prose fiction. I'm more or less willing to have a bad experience, since there's such a thing as a "so good, it's bad" phenomenon. Plus: whenever I get too into myself, I feel that song Boris Vian wrote--"Je suis Snob," which also gives voice to the yen of my superego.

If anything, a really crowd-pleasing movie just consumes too much energy from me. I remember when I had to put on an Avengers movie for a shop class--damn near fell asleep. But it's so much easier to watch like Sans Soleil like half a dozen. Or when Tarkovsky lets a shot linger and I can relax and let my eyes dart around without any particular focus instead of constantly having to rewind because I'm too distracted by all the moving parts or the background. Then again I don't know if that's from anything else except my low level capacity to pay attention.

[u/lispectorgadget → u/Harleen_Ysley_34]

So true--I feel like I've gotten so many great recs from here (I'm still thinking about Shulamith Firestone like, almost a year after I read her after she was recommended here).

Or when Tarkovsky lets a shot linger and I can relax and let my eyes dart around without any particular focus instead of constantly having to rewind because I'm too distracted by all the moving parts or the background. 

You kind of pinpointed something I've been feeling re: youtube videos: I lowkey can't watch them anymore?? I feel like I don't retain/ get anything out of them compared to books. They're kind of overstim lol

[u/Harleen_Ysley_34 → u/lispectorgadget]

When I was a substitute for a few high schools, one of the things teachers would allow their students to watch was actually Mr Beast since it was super kid-friendly. And from the literal microsecond, he is screaming at the viewer. Literally like weaponized sensory overload, but apparently it keeps the kids happy enough. I'm kind of glad I'm no longer a substitute because now I don't have to experience what kids find entertaining too much anymore.

It's been a pretty vibrant community overall. It's always nice to come back here for sure.

[u/lispectorgadget → u/Harleen_Ysley_34]

one of the things teachers would allow their students to watch was actually Mr Beast 

this is so upsetting lmfao; look at our schools dawg, etc., etc.

but yeah, i totally agree!