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Majinkarp ([info]majinkarp) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2004-12-13 23:31:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
How big is yours?
Over on linguaphiles, ms_cucumber wants to know what literary works are people's favorites among Western canon. Only she excludes certain periods and languages from consideration, because they're just not special enough to count. Apparently this is some kind of competition to see who's the most intellectual:

To qualify as "well read" you have to have a huge quantity of quality books -- basically of the Western canon because those are the books that helped shape the world we live in today. I'm sure there's plenty of lovely Japanese, Indian, Arabic, etc., literature, but their influence was more limited.

Because we all know that Western society is the most important culture that ever was, and that everybody else stole from it was influenced by it.

Ok, first off, the community is supposed to be about language, not literature. See? linguaphiles. Second, it seems the OP is more eager to show off how worldly she is than to ask a serious question. But that's ok, because plenty of people there are still eager to flaunt their own knowledge of literature. It all comes down to comparing intellectual dick sizes, as [info]ladybirdsleeps describes it.

If you want to be really well-read, the wanky psuedo-intellectual thread that spawned this one is here.

Edit: Follow-up (apology?) thread here.


(Post a new comment)


[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-12-14 05:56 am UTC (link)
I really wanted to give ms_cucumber a link to that rating community for literary taste, since I felt she'd be at home there, but I forgot the username. =(

This is my favorite comment. Oh no! People don't agree with her and provide reasons why! That must mean they're "so dogmatic that they can't even be bothered to argue back"!

</spooge>

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]majinkarp
2004-12-14 06:08 am UTC (link)
Oh no, she's being persecuted!

I think you're looking for thebookyoucrew? Either she'd fit right in there, or be laughed out of it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]altoidsaddict, 2004-12-14 07:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-15 04:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]blue_linnet, 2004-12-16 05:01 am UTC

[info]nevadafighter
2004-12-14 08:36 am UTC (link)
She's a wanker. Now, in one of your comments you said Moby-Dick bored you and you couldn't finish it. That novel is one of my favorites, but am going to insinuate that "omg you have no taste!1!1!" No, because I spend the last seven years of school learning that literature is subjective and some of the stuff I love (Collins, Whitman, Spenser, Melville) are loathed by others, and some that I have no taste for (Plath, Stein, Hemingway) are gods to some people. Que sera sera.

But yes—implying that Western literature is the only lit that matters is dumb dumb dumb. And then for her to turn it around and say that anyone who says otherwise is dogmatic? Pure wank.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-14 08:42 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 08:48 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-14 09:08 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-14 04:13 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 03:59 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]majinkarp, 2004-12-14 04:07 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-14 04:13 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]majinkarp, 2004-12-14 04:15 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 04:19 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 09:51 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 10:03 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]snacky, 2004-12-14 04:57 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 05:05 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 09:48 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 09:57 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 09:59 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 10:04 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 10:05 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 10:09 pm UTC

[info]mummimamma
2004-12-14 07:11 am UTC (link)
Literaturewant before breakfast isn't good. I'm feeling queasy.

favorites among Western canon
Not Western literature but select parts of Western literature. If I was forced to read the Icelandic sagas and Ibsen in school so should everyone else, damnit!

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]mummimamma
2004-12-14 07:12 am UTC (link)
Wank! Not want. Commenting before breakfast isn't a good idea either it seems..

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]aloysius
2004-12-14 10:36 am UTC (link)
Sagas.

*shudder*

Do not remind me of those before breakfast. Pretty please?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]mummimamma, 2004-12-14 11:50 am UTC

[info]phosfate
2004-12-14 04:02 pm UTC (link)
Oh, they make us read Ibsen. And when I've completed my death ray, you'll all pay for it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]annabelle_lee
2004-12-14 07:53 am UTC (link)
Why is it that I can virtually be non-wanky in a wankzone that gets reported to otf_wank, but when I'm intentionally wanky and a shitstorm is caused because of me, I'm ignored?

Talk about irony. Oh well, there's always i_wank. :D

(Reply to this)


[info]puipui
2004-12-14 07:59 am UTC (link)
there can't be an open exchange of ideas.
Not here. I once opined that homosexuality is a genetic medical condition, like hemophilia, and distinguished linguaphiles were jumping at me as wounded bears for several days, because in their eyes anybody who doubts that honoxuality is a healthy norm is a backward homophobe (just watch what is going to start right now). The literacy thread was the same thing, but with feminists. Open exchange of ideas is welcome as long these are the ideas of the majority.


I will not wank, I will not wank, I will not wank, I will not wank, I will not...

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]singe
2004-12-14 09:33 am UTC (link)
Oh, brother. She's saying, "If my fresh oxygen is too much for their shriveled lungs, then let them find some stuffiness that suits them!"

Or however that Shaw quote goes.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bubosquared
2004-12-14 12:54 pm UTC (link)
Not only can I not follow her logic (anyone want to try and explain it to me?), but I also desperately want to know WTF "honosexuality" is. Being sexually attracted to honour? What?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 04:03 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]visp, 2004-12-14 11:48 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bastet, 2004-12-14 05:23 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]majinkarp, 2004-12-14 05:26 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bastet, 2004-12-14 06:09 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lush_rimbaud, 2004-12-15 01:20 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mael, 2004-12-15 01:25 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]lush_rimbaud, 2004-12-15 01:47 am UTC

[info]prettypinkkitty
2004-12-14 10:05 am UTC (link)
Ohhh...right. I missed that part where the Bible was originated in the West, and written originally in English.

Hey, seeing how it's the first printed book...

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-14 04:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]prettypinkkitty, 2004-12-14 06:18 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-14 06:24 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]nevadafighter, 2004-12-14 09:56 pm UTC

dodyskin
2004-12-14 03:34 pm UTC (link)
It's sad really, how easily wanked some people are.

It is completely possible to ask the question she claimed to be asking without wankery but no, she had to generalise from her own experience, pre-judge without a reasonable criteria, make sweeping statements without sufficient knowledge... She had to do it. There's no help for her now.

(Reply to this)


[info]mistressrenet
2004-12-14 03:57 pm UTC (link)
I left out Spanish literature because I am not aware of a huge body of Spanish literature classics, plus if I have to hear one more about how great One Hundred Years of Solitude is, I'm going to puke.
I will not wank, FUCKING DON QUIXOTE I will not wank, MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE IS GREAT, I will not wank....

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 04:05 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-14 04:10 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2004-12-14 04:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-15 07:11 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-15 02:23 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]24601, 2004-12-21 04:07 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]prettypinkkitty, 2004-12-14 06:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]luckdragonfujur, 2004-12-14 10:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]luckdragonfujur, 2004-12-14 10:01 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]akairis, 2004-12-14 11:50 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]prettypinkkitty, 2004-12-15 12:17 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]akairis, 2004-12-15 12:54 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-15 02:59 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]luckdragonfujur, 2004-12-15 03:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mistressrenet, 2004-12-15 03:48 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-15 07:14 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]luckdragonfujur, 2004-12-15 04:04 pm UTC

[info]alpheratz
2004-12-14 04:18 pm UTC (link)
Oh, God, literature wank is one of those things that annoys me like than a really annoying thing.

plus if I have to hear one more about how great One Hundred Years of Solitude is, I'm going to puke

Just for that - it's really great.

(Reply to this)


[info]mistressrenet
2004-12-14 06:31 pm UTC (link)
It just keeps getting better.

(Reply to this)


kroki_refur
2004-12-14 06:46 pm UTC (link)
I saw this on my friends list and ignored it immediately. It's not just the ignoring of non-Western (and a large quantity of Western) culture, it's the idea that if I've read one seventeenth century French book, I'm somehow more well-read than if I've read twenty English and Spanish books from the same period. I can have read Don Quixote and Beowulf, the Kalevala and the Icelandic sagas, Shakespeare, Dante and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but still be considered "not well-read" under the terms of the competition. Even when looked at from an entirely Western viewpoint, it's rather silly.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]mummimamma, 2004-12-14 10:59 pm UTC
(no subject) - kroki_refur, 2004-12-15 01:30 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mummimamma, 2004-12-15 05:29 pm UTC
(no subject) - kroki_refur, 2004-12-15 07:58 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mummimamma, 2004-12-15 09:41 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sesana, 2004-12-15 04:47 am UTC

[info]luckdragonfujur
2004-12-14 10:05 pm UTC (link)
I left out Spanish literature because I am not aware of a huge body of Spanish literature classics

The fact that you're not aware of them doesn't mean that they don't exist.
The point is that, as student of Hispanic Letters, I want to keel u, biatch!!!!onethousandtwo!!!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]akairis, 2004-12-14 11:51 pm UTC

[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-12-15 04:38 am UTC (link)
She just continues to get more annoying.

(Reply to this)


[info]adora_spintriae
2004-12-15 05:33 am UTC (link)
I really don't see how you benefit from calling books "texts." In this context they have the same meaning. In fact, I can't see any context where they wouldn't. Because you can now download e-books to your computer, PDA, etc., the word "book" has been expanded beyond the literal definition of a text that was written on some type of paper and given a binding.

Dear fucking asshat,

Please stop using the word "text" like you know what the fuck it means, since you obviously don't.

Regards
-A wanker.

PS: Your icon sucks. Maybe you should try some individuality sometime, instead of using mass produced icons/reading books everyone tells you to.

(Reply to this)


[info]chaimonkey
2004-12-15 06:26 am UTC (link)
Anyone else notice how the first novel was written in Asia?

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]madelfdisease, 2004-12-16 05:16 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]chaimonkey, 2004-12-16 05:17 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]madelfdisease, 2004-12-16 05:23 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]chaimonkey, 2004-12-16 05:28 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]madelfdisease, 2004-12-16 05:34 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]chaimonkey, 2004-12-16 05:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]madelfdisease, 2004-12-16 06:01 am UTC

[info]chaimonkey
2004-12-15 06:33 am UTC (link)
Anime -- how do you think I got interested in real Japanese literature! :)

Oh she just wrote out her fucking death scentence.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-15 07:10 am UTC

[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-12-15 07:08 am UTC (link)
Oh, and to be fair to some of the commenters, they gave her their favorites before she mentioned that it was supposed to be a competition.

(Reply to this)


[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-12-16 06:45 am UTC (link)
How sweet -- she's posted a new post, going on about dogmatism and whatnot again. It's here.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]kyuuketsukirui, 2004-12-16 07:15 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]majinkarp, 2004-12-16 07:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-16 08:15 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]majinkarp, 2004-12-16 12:55 pm UTC

kroki_refur
2004-12-16 08:33 am UTC (link)
Follow-up apology has been deleted. I'd cap it (I still have it open), but I'm not sure how...

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]ladybirdsleeps, 2004-12-16 10:11 am UTC

 
   
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