On the one hand, I get that the premise of the video is funny, and I appreciate this list. I just keep seeing a false dichotomy on Booktube of books and readers being either "fun" or "pretentious." It's like there are competitive sisters trying to find their roles in a family. I wish we could promote an un-ironic love of learning. I think that's a democratic value that is being lost.
This video is mostly pretty tongue in cheek, supposed to be poking fun at this very thing. However, I'm not sure this dichotomy is as new as people say. There was a moral panic over sensationalist literature not being high value in the victorian period, and novels were thought to be rotting women's brains in the regency era. Perhaps it seems moreso now because we have access to more voices than ever before, but I do think we as people tend to overestimate how new and different our own times are, and I'd want empirical evidence to show that we are more anti intellectual these days, everything I've read on the matter has just been based on one or two loud voices and vibes.
love the fitzcarraldo comment -- very true ha ha ha (i say this as someone who loves fitzes of course). and of course i appreciate the lispector :) delightful choices abound!
a book is an object and cant be pretentious, people can however. weird how any book that isnt trending on tiktok at any given moment gets labeled as "pretentious" 🤔
Fitzcarraldo Editions are doing a great job as independent publishers in my view, serving as a much needed platform for new, bold and boundary-pushing work in an industry that mostly sticks to a tried and worn formula. I'm thinking of my copy of Annie Ernaux 'The Years,' through which I was first introduced to this Nobel-prize winning French author. The poster child for pretentious book easily goes to James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake,' or perhaps you may want to have a go at Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow.' Peak pretentiousness, if you ask me Very interesting video👍🙏
what a fun list! have yet to do the Mishima and based on your words, will perhaps save it for next summer!
Definitely, end of summer when the humidity makes you feel like you're coming down with a cold and your shirt goes translucent on your back
On the one hand, I get that the premise of the video is funny, and I appreciate this list. I just keep seeing a false dichotomy on Booktube of books and readers being either "fun" or "pretentious." It's like there are competitive sisters trying to find their roles in a family. I wish we could promote an un-ironic love of learning. I think that's a democratic value that is being lost.
This video is mostly pretty tongue in cheek, supposed to be poking fun at this very thing. However, I'm not sure this dichotomy is as new as people say. There was a moral panic over sensationalist literature not being high value in the victorian period, and novels were thought to be rotting women's brains in the regency era. Perhaps it seems moreso now because we have access to more voices than ever before, but I do think we as people tend to overestimate how new and different our own times are, and I'd want empirical evidence to show that we are more anti intellectual these days, everything I've read on the matter has just been based on one or two loud voices and vibes.
love the fitzcarraldo comment -- very true ha ha ha (i say this as someone who loves fitzes of course). and of course i appreciate the lispector :)
delightful choices abound!
Thank you, in glad you appreciated it!
Sophie's gettin ready to put out a book haul for September. Stay tuned
a book is an object and cant be pretentious, people can however. weird how any book that isnt trending on tiktok at any given moment gets labeled as "pretentious" 🤔
I’m not on TikTok so don’t really know what’s trending, though I’m pretty sure Clarice Lispector is
Fitzcarraldo Editions are doing a great job as independent publishers in my view, serving as a much needed platform for new, bold and boundary-pushing work in an industry that mostly sticks to a tried and worn formula. I'm thinking of my copy of Annie Ernaux 'The Years,' through which I was first introduced to this Nobel-prize winning French author. The poster child for pretentious book easily goes to James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake,' or perhaps you may want to have a go at Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow.' Peak pretentiousness, if you ask me Very interesting video👍🙏
I agree that Fitz is publishing great books, I just wish they'd give them covers so I'd know which was which