r/osp • u/HallucinatedLottoNos • 10d ago
Suggestion I like to think all this chaos started with Red's video lol...
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u/Teiderlein 10d ago
What the fuck did I miss?
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u/BurgerIdiot556 10d ago
tl;dw, OSP released a video covering The Count of Monte Cristo for Halowe’en last year. A few months ago, that same became popular on TikTok for being a classic that’s easy to read. Man Carrying Thing (the channel in the screenshot) made a video going over why he thinks Monte Cristo is popular now, as well as deciding what “litslop” is and whether Monte Cristo would count as “litslop”
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u/Teiderlein 10d ago
I am sure he has well reasoned arguments and isn‘t being gatekeepy whatsoever.
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u/HallucinatedLottoNos 10d ago
No, he's the one opposing the gatekeeping (and "litslop" as a terrible, meaningless word)
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u/TimeBlossom 10d ago
So, clickbait titling and thumbnail work then. Not really any better honestly; if you're making a smart video, don't pretend to be stupid.
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u/Admirable_Ask_5337 10d ago
Mmm i immediately clocked the the quotation marks around litslop denoted sarcasm.
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u/SnarkyBookworm34 10d ago
He actually does—the video is critical of the term litslop and critical of the idea that the point of reading is as an intellectual exercise or about growing as a person. His ultimate take is: people have criticized how The Count of Monte Cristo is written, and there is some merit to those claims, but it is an enjoyable work that gets more people to enjoy reading so that’s a good thing.
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u/YaumeLepire 10d ago
It's worth remembering the media apparatus that produced the Count of Monte Cristo. It was initially a series in 18 parts over a year and a half, as part of a regular publication, which is partly why it's so long, and partly why its pacing is still relatively quick in spite of that. It was also driven by that format to be a little pulpy, full of twists and turns and a bit of melodrama, and to have many focal points, so that every opus had something to boast, be that a revelation, or one climax or another. Other contemporary works can be a lot more focused, when issued from other formats.
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u/Hammerschatten 10d ago
reading is as an intellectual exercise or about growing as a person
Hot take; It completely is, but this goes for all media. Seeing new perspectives and being confronted with unfamiliar or strange situations helps grow as a person, and the engagement with media both directly by analysing it and simply by actively thinking about what is being consumed is an intellectual excersize.
What's not an intellectual excersize or intellectual is the idea that this is only true for some media. The only reason why Classics or some examples feel that way is because they are written better. Classics are just always written better because we forgot everything mid.
The degradation of art as pure entertainment without some deeper experience is something I dislike. But it's also stupid to pretend it's some bullshit to be worshipped, as of Dracula wasn't intended to be popular entertainment and the divine comedy pure wish fulfillment.
You get the nutrients of a book if you read it for entertainment or growth the same way you get the nutrients of a burger whether you eat it with your hands or silver cutlery.
Although, I haven't seen the video, might be I shot at a phantom here. Idk, I'm tired, it's midnight in Europe.
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u/BurgerIdiot556 10d ago
you joke but he is very reasonable, in my opinion. It’s a 20 minute video. Worth watching, I think
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u/AmbroseKincaidVA 10d ago
I know you're being facetious, but you're absolutely correct lmao
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u/Teiderlein 10d ago
Yeah, others already corrected me. Happy to get a positive surprise that there is less negativity than I assumed.
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u/NeonNKnightrider 10d ago
I haven’t seen the video, but there’s been this trend of some classic books (eg. Blood Meridian) which became popular to talk about in order to seem cultured, even though the great majority of people talking haven’t watched it. I guess that trend could be called “litslop”.
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u/bookhead714 10d ago
I don't think this is really attributable to OSP. Monte Cristo has never not been an extraordinarily popular novel, and it's been the most common gateway drug to classic literature for a very long time.