Show Library: Pseudointellectual Books That, in Fact, Suck

[diebitter]

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Ok, I'll offer an odd entry: Harry Potter.

Here is why. Every adult who reads this crap has like a deep insecurity about being a moron and so they find the need to try and turn it into some kind of literature masterpiece and go on and on about all the great layers and levels and meanings and blah blah blah. Its a stupid childrens book. If you want to read it thats fine, but I don't want to hear you ranting about how a book about 12 year old wizards where 90% of the words are made up gibberish is a new classic.

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You're very badly missing the point of why people like these books and projecting a lot of stupid [censored] out there towards people who do enjoy them.

I don't think anybody thinks that it's an exceptionally well written book in terms of craft.

It has, however, created a very engaging and interesting world. They're a fantastically easy and quick read. It's bubble gum, but it's very good bubble gum. Nobody's holding this up as epic art.

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And I agree with Dids. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[suzzer99]

Well apparently according to this thread, my lack of being an avid reader most of my life actually means I've avoided a bunch of crap. Yay.

[ScottyP431]

Dids,

Please add me back to your ignore list. I don't know how I got off it but if you are going to go back to trying to get into stupid arguments with me about crap like the OC and Harry Potter please save your breathe. I thought I had made it more than abundantly clear I could not care less for your opinion on any issue. You are such a stupid moron I cant stand it. How do you know what my personal experience is with people who read Harry Potter you know nothing know it all?

I am referring to a about 7 specific people I know who in the context of what books written today would become classics argued in favor of Potter on a few differant occasions.

Please go back to reading Harry Potter and watching the OC and leave words like "craft" to people who have some clue what they are talking about.

[Boris]

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also it's not cool to be contrary, and you are probably one of those contrary people in arguments. that is very boring and wastes everyones time.



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WRONGO!

Being contrary is awesome!

[Dids]

Scotty,

They very much ARE classics, just a different definition of classic than you seem to be using.

I forgot you even were the guy who got all dick hurt about the OC until you made that post, but with that memory, your point of view on this makes a lot more sense.

[Blarg]

I think he was a very interesting thinker for his tripartite theory of mind. Even more than outraging people by making them admit the primacy or even presence of sex in the daily lives and thoughts of every last person, he deeply wounded the idea of one-level, "common sense" thinking -- history as written by the winners, in a sense. The truth is, reality is a construct we very actively play a part in, and we are not all the people we like to be -- nor are we even necessarily clear where and when and why we're not. His elaboration of ideas on people being many-leveled beings rife with internal conflict, unwholesome desires, and tremendous repression was disturbing but true.

So what if he took a little creative license and didn't always get everything right? He gave us back to ourselves as the weirdos and animals we are, and for that, I'm grateful.

He was also very often an extremely interesting, insightful writer. Civilization and its Discontents is a wonderful book, for instance.

I think he has a lot more value as a writer and thinker than as a practical scientist.

[Blarg]

Scotty, I wonder how you feel about Lord of the Rings and all that made up gobbledeygook?

Personally, I didn't like it a bit, but I know I'm in the minority on that, and that Tolkein is enjoyed by many and held in very high regard by some pretty smart academic types.

[Aloysius]

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He was also very often an extremely interesting, insightful writer. Civilization and its Discontents is a wonderful book, for instance.

I think he has a lot more value as a writer and thinker than as a practical scientist.

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Word - Freud gets a lot of flack in the popular culture, but he was a groundbreaking thinker and writer on many topics (I also really like Moses and Monotheism).

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Off the top of my head, I'd put sociology, women's studies, and art criticism far ahead of English for pseudointellectual baloney -- and large parts of psychology too.

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Eh it's all a bunch of [censored] haha. Not knowing much about sociology, I feel like there might be important casework in terms of pure numbers / stats useful to other, more important disciplines in their actually useful work. Could be wrong though.

-Al

[sparkyjones]

existentialism and objectivism are one in the same. ayn rand just chose a different name for it because sartre had taken existentialism already

[ScottyP431]

Blarg,

Harry Potter hatred is an issue very close to my heart, so my posts on that may be somewhat hyperbolic. I do like other fantasy/genre writing, the made up words thing was more of a joke. On a college math exam I once took the question for extra credit was something like "When playing squiditch and quagwash" and I had no idea wtf it was talking about. After class someone told me it was about Harry Potter and I nearly threw up. I guess it's like Dominic said in a thread about the Fountain, its not pretentious if you can walk the walk.

As for your specific question, I don't like LOTR Books/movies/or people who like them. I think I would like it a lot better were the hobbits either
A. To never have existed, or
B. Actually genocided instead of just that dream sequence.

The shire is clearly gay.