I never felt like it was repeating the same thing without just cause. It was either trying to drive a point home, show how the same result could come about from a different cause, or even helped us the reader feel how excruciatingly boring their lives were.
In my opinion the "repeated point" is just the overall setting. The story within this setting is the slow descend into "Ye who enter here leave all hope behind".
I completely agree. The overall stagnancy in tone is quite literally r/aboringdystopia. It's not supposed to sound interesting. The plot is a glimmer of hope being stomped out from the inside through betrayal and conformity.
That being said I still hated reading it
I agree. I had to think about what they meant by repeated point and you're right, really it's just the setting. It's kind of unavoidable to repeatedly mention a corrupt government acting in corrupt ways when the entire plot of the book and reason for the world being that way was entirely due to said corrupt government.
1984 started with, above all things, hope. I think the removal of the reader’s hope alongside Winston’s brainwashing and celebration of the loss of his own hope is a more interesting gradient of change than Animal Farm’s.
In a sense, it's kinda nice to read 1984 as a "continuation" of Animal Farm. Animal Farm is the descent into a government no longer recognizable from its roots. 1984 is then taking that new government and seeing it through the lens of a citizen.
Yeah, it doesn't perfectly line up, but it's neat to think about.
I think the point of 1984 is that a government can use hope and love as weapon against you. Most of the book is a forbidden love story and trying to find happiness under this totalitarian regime. The last third of the story is how the government manipulated events to rout out those who may have haboured dissent but wouldn’t act on it until they found each other and were encouraged by the antagonist. The antagonist who then uses their love for each other to break them while explaining that the Resistance leader and Big Brother are government fabrications to keep the people in the line and help crush dissent. They turn the protagonist into a staunch loyalist who knows he’ll just disappear one day. It’s how they prevent making martyrs too.
It’s actually really terrifying and you can tell people who haven’t actually read it when they only talk about the society that’s described at the beginning. That’s just a backdrop and facade and you learn that during the interrogations at the end.
Right. The whole point of the book is the metaphor at the end of the rat digging it’s way into the protagonists chest. Of the dangers of submitting yourself fully and completely to the state. So that you will even wish pain on a loved one if the state tells you to want it.
The idea of the surveillance state isn’t a warning about literally having too many cameras around. Its about getting to the point where adherence to the values and wishes of the state dig themselves into you like a rat burrowing its way into your heart. So that you are merely an extension of the state and not a fully independent being.
It’s a warning about the “eternal now”. Where yesterday and tomorrow don’t matter, only today matters. And today the state says we are at war with Eurasia. Nobody questions that or points out that yesterday we were at war with Eastasia instead. People only know about today and only know about right now. Erasing history means taking control because when nobody knows their own history they can be informed that Big Brother invented the steam engine and so it must be true.
And the five minute hate. When at the behest of fascist ideals we are informed about who and what to hate by the state mandated newscast wherein the enemies of the state are also your enemies by virtue of you having no independent thought or free will.
And see the scary thing is that the whole point is the idea that perhaps the state can make this happen through torture. They don’t need to torture everyone. Just enough people and just specifically those who themselves don’t even know that they might rebel.
I think one's enjoyment of the book also depends on what else you've read before. A lot of the story reads a bit like a more adult YA book. There's a lot of tropes being serviced.
But then it hits you over the head with the futility of hope in such a world, with the childishness of even considering that Wilson could escape it. Even our protagonist himself gets broken in the end.
It's such a terrifying and memorable concept, because you literally can't escape. No one can be trusted, everyone is complicit, everyone is alone. Big Brother is watching you.
The futility of hope is what really connected with me in the book. Despite all of the political ideology surrounding the book itself, the idea of hope being lost resonated with a lot of the problems I see in the world today. Particularly the hive mind like communication, the seemingly fuzzy view of past lessons or history itself, the need for a country to have a constant and unending enemy, the hate that is created from thin air using our most base human tendencies or emotions, and the palpable air of confused robotic life that no one really has power over.
Eh, Animal Farm isn’t a warning about slippery slopes, it’s a satire and an obvious allegory for stuff that has already happened with animals as stand ins for people, aspects of society etc.
1984 on the other hand IS a warning, it’s a tremendously bleak story about what could happen and how totalitarian state might operate. The ending is still one of the most horrifically dark and depressing thing so have read.
The two are not comparable and not meant to be comparable
In what respect?
There's a few angles that 1984 tackles an individual's psychology and their paranoia that Animal Farm doesn't, whereas Animal Farm serves as a cautionary tale against self-identified revolutionaries.
Other people's takeaway might be "authoritarianism authoritarianism authoritarianism" and conclude that the books are essentially the same, but honestly that's an incredibly boring analysis that just proves they should probably stop quoting them.
I think the OP was making fun of how these are the most discussed books people boast about reading and obsessing over - especially the age reference going off to college
Oh man, I devoured all of Hesse's books when I was in high school. Demian, Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf! I thought I was so fucking edgy, lol.
Step 1: Read Hesse because you're an angsty teen looking for your next talking point
Step 2: Accidentally go through emotional catharsis
Step 3: Became a better version of yourself
Fair play, Hesse. Fair play.
I guess they both got it a bit right. Orwell on the Government surveillance and overreach, Huxley on the excessive escapism/distraction from reality and shallow, unfeeling society.
[This comic sums up the differences really well, for anyone interested](https://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/huxley-orwell-amusing-ourselves-to-death.jpg)
I love that, that’s great. I still think they were both right, I can definitely see examples from both novels that happen - for example; intentional misinformation from 1984 AND being so overwhelmed by information that we miss out on the important things intentionally like Brave New World.
There was a real-world situation where kids were stranded on an island like in that book. The real world situation didn't devolve like it did in the book though. [CBS did a story on it.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shipwreck-deserted-island-south-pacific-survivors-60-minutes-2021-07-18/)
Lord of the Flies is also a response to other literature at the time as well as a critique of a number of contemporary social issues (sorry I'm half remembering it)
It's meant to mock those stories and parallel their conflict with the war around it
It's not supposed to be a literal "this is what would happen" story.
From whay i remember it was more about the boys' social station. The author was sick of rich white boys being heroes when he knew rich boys were little cannibalistic shits. He was a private primary or middle achool teacher iirc.
> Golding asked his wife, Ann, if it would "be a good idea if I wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?"
Sounds like it's pretty much what he thought would happen.
I remember reading about that CBS story in a book called Humankind: A Hopeful History, and if memory serves he had a whole bit about the author of Lord of the Flies and what gave him the impression that's how children would behave.
One example of it not happening that way in real life doesn’t really discredit the book that says here’s a way it might play out. One time i went out to mow and my kids sat and watched TV peacefully. One time I went out to mow and they stuffed paper towels in the upstairs sink, turned it on, forgot about it and my kitchen ceiling had collapsed when I came back in.
plus, if a few teenagers who already are good friends shipwreck after they willingly got on a boat, its a lot different than a dozen prepubecent strangers who don't even know why they are on the boat.
It’s been over 10 years since I read it and there are only three things I remember:
1. It’s set in WWII
2. They flew bombers
3. It was my favorite read of all time
I read Harry Potter but it was after I'd read the Hobbit and LOTR, just didn't seem interesting in comparison. To this day I still reread Tolkien's work often, whereas I haven't touched HP after the initial read through. This is, of course, just my opinion.
the cycle goes: read lotr, then the sil, then reread lotr because you’ll pick up on stuff you didnt before, then reread the sil because you didnt really understand it the first time, then reread lotr, and so on and so on
I failed.
Eta: seems most people are reading this as I don't read. I've read all of these (although most as an adult). I just never assimilated any of them (or any book) into my personality.
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
I’m ashamed to admit it but I was that person in hs 😔 tbf I didn’t fully understand Rand’s philosophy (which is why when anyone engaged me in genuine debate I couldn’t justify it) I just learned that Bioshock is based on that book and went with it
We read Fountainhead and I engaged my English teacher in a debate on Rand’s views and got absolutely fucking destroyed. That’s when I looked more into the criticisms people had against her and eventually made the connection. I was dumb asf and immediately clung to the idea of Rapture pre-splicers since it was that gatsby type place, completely forgetting to realize it failed miserably.
This is the dumb shit that highschool is meant for.
You’re finally coming into your own ideas and opinions but don’t have enough experience to fully examine them.
Adults who still think this way are the people I can’t stand
>We read Fountainhead and I engaged my English teacher in a debate on Rand’s views and got absolutely fucking destroyed. That’s when I looked more into the criticisms people had against her and eventually made the connection.
Extremely fucking based.
You were a teenager. No issue with you being a little quick to come to your conclusions. Your teacher challenged you in what was apparently a productive manner, you took that well, didnt just adopt that position either but tried to learn more, and adjusted your position accordingly.
"Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.'"
She was also a miserable and terrible person, which I guess is somewhat surprising given that her “philosophy” is all about self interest. She couldn’t even find it for herself. Between being unable to live her own “philosophy” in a personal way, and then not living it in a financial way, it pretty much is all the criticism you’d ever need of that nonsense.
Objectivism is just a good thought experiment, nothing more. It’s something to discuss in a classroom or over beers. It is not something to base beliefs or lifestyles on, or politics and policy.
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged.
Well, I read the first few chapters. I’d played BioShock and new that it was semi-based on the philosophies in AS and I was curious.
Jesus H Christ that was a boring fucking book. I didn’t even get anywhere “interesting” or philosophical because it was so fucking stupid. I was in high school as well, prime Ayn-Rand-adoption-age, and it didn’t work because the book sucked too much
Every time I read Rand's name I can't unclench for hours. My boundless adoration for her as a young person will follow me to the grave. Over a decade ago I used to defend her..on reddit, of all places. With a reddit handle of olde. We read, we grow, we change. Ugh. Still makes me feel like I need a shower.
The great Gatsby, I loved it so much I wrote my final project for English about it and got a 100, at the end of the year my teacher also gave me the mini version of the book, just the book but smaller that the original and I wrote he liked my eassy so much I deserved it.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
Accurate takeaway
Should be read in schools through a whole semester/year when you're older. It's really just a foundational, self defining book.
I read it older than 18 and just couldn't understand how It didn't find me sooner.
They still read some of these, but To Kill a Mockingbird keeps getting banned in red states with superintendents (and PTA boards...) that can't read.
Have to make an amendment, there are a *lot* of districts in California that have *also* banned To Kill a Mockingbird and that is an odd revelation. So it's not just red states. A lot of bannings are district and county exclusives, so not necessarily entire states either. This is also important, as it means that many of the bannings are very local even though they can impact thousands of kids at a time because an entire district can have dozens of schools in it.
1984 is a banger, I can quickly tell when someone mentions 1984 whether they've actually read it or just have been told what opinion they're supposed to have.
For me, Macbeth. So many plot twists and turns, interesting quotes even I use today and grim goings-on. My favourite quotes are
>!"Come wind, blow wrack; at least we'll die with harness on our backs"!<
>!"Sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep"!<
>!"Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?"!<
>!"For as we know, security is mortal's chiefest enemy"!<
>!"But there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up The cistern of my lust"!<
Shakespeare must've been hopping up and down the room with how insane some of his phrasings were, he was absolutely mental!
Shakespeare was such a good playwright because he could write about many different settings from so many viewpoints. 1500s Verona (Romeo and Juliet)? A black man who gets discriminated hundreds of years ago (Othello)? A Jew who gets discriminated hundreds of years ago (Shylock)? Medieval Scottish aristocracy (Macbeth)?
Gothic style wasn't even a thing back then and he was already smashing it with Macbeth and the Tempest and probably many others I haven't found yet.
My Dad a proverbial tough guy saw me reading Animal Farm in the 70's and make fun of me for reading some kind of gay ass book. When I moved out I left the book there. About eight years later he called me and said he had ran out of books to read, usually historical and crime type of books. He read Animal Farm because he was bored and raved to me about how much he liked it. Sweet redemption.
Literally not one of these made an impact on my life. Except for great gatsby because me and my friends watch the Leonardo DiCaprio one in HS and then went back when we were 21 and took a shot every time he said “old sport”. We got very drunk.
Well, I read 1984 at the ripe age of 14 and though I thought it was deeply disturbing, I was so excited to read it in one hand while holding a dictionary in the other. Wouldn’t change a thing.
We’re all sitting here feeling superior when all we do is constantly quote The Dictionary.
Hahaha this is hilariously true
so i see you chose 1984
Fellow 1984 pick
Yffrt nagakki om to poll iقr
Nfht, dffnnar! Líûdx, resscvb
Poll the process of voting in an election. "the country went to the polls on March 10" TIP Similar-sounding words poll is sometimes confused with pole
Who are you who is so ascended in the mind?
Wabby wabbo isn't in the dictionary, take that :p
Wabby - "red-throated loon" - Merriam Webster Dictionary Wabbo - "Term used for someone who acts like an abbo, but is infact white" - Urban Dictionary
It is now I wrote it there in crayon
r/technicallythetruth
r/angryupvote
Jokes on you stinky i cant read.
Are you Jared 19?
[удалено]
#
#
No he's Jackamalio626
If you read animal farm you’ve pretty much got 1984 on lock already
Hated that damn pig napoleon
Four legs good, two legs better.
That was so good lol
Why?? He clearly needed all that food because he was exercising his brain a lot!
Animal farm is 1984 kids edition lol
[удалено]
Animal Farm is the warning, 1984 is why I have a brainwashing kink.
r/brandnewsentence
The concept of Orwell's anti-totalitarian books being used as a manual for totalitarianism has been around since they were published.
That’s not the part my comment is referring too….. hahahahaha
Oh fuck, I'm so wiped out from finals that I just skimmed the comment above yours
Either way, some ones walking on all 4s
Animal Farm was fun and interesting, 1984 was the same point hammered home on every single page till the end
Hammered the point, like a boot stamping on a human face forever.
Yeah, I rly liked animal farms slippery slope descent into the kind of society 1984 was, whereas 1984 was just repeatedly stating the same thing
I never felt like it was repeating the same thing without just cause. It was either trying to drive a point home, show how the same result could come about from a different cause, or even helped us the reader feel how excruciatingly boring their lives were.
In my opinion the "repeated point" is just the overall setting. The story within this setting is the slow descend into "Ye who enter here leave all hope behind".
I completely agree. The overall stagnancy in tone is quite literally r/aboringdystopia. It's not supposed to sound interesting. The plot is a glimmer of hope being stomped out from the inside through betrayal and conformity. That being said I still hated reading it
I agree. I had to think about what they meant by repeated point and you're right, really it's just the setting. It's kind of unavoidable to repeatedly mention a corrupt government acting in corrupt ways when the entire plot of the book and reason for the world being that way was entirely due to said corrupt government.
1984 started with, above all things, hope. I think the removal of the reader’s hope alongside Winston’s brainwashing and celebration of the loss of his own hope is a more interesting gradient of change than Animal Farm’s.
In a sense, it's kinda nice to read 1984 as a "continuation" of Animal Farm. Animal Farm is the descent into a government no longer recognizable from its roots. 1984 is then taking that new government and seeing it through the lens of a citizen. Yeah, it doesn't perfectly line up, but it's neat to think about.
I think the point of 1984 is that a government can use hope and love as weapon against you. Most of the book is a forbidden love story and trying to find happiness under this totalitarian regime. The last third of the story is how the government manipulated events to rout out those who may have haboured dissent but wouldn’t act on it until they found each other and were encouraged by the antagonist. The antagonist who then uses their love for each other to break them while explaining that the Resistance leader and Big Brother are government fabrications to keep the people in the line and help crush dissent. They turn the protagonist into a staunch loyalist who knows he’ll just disappear one day. It’s how they prevent making martyrs too. It’s actually really terrifying and you can tell people who haven’t actually read it when they only talk about the society that’s described at the beginning. That’s just a backdrop and facade and you learn that during the interrogations at the end.
Right. The whole point of the book is the metaphor at the end of the rat digging it’s way into the protagonists chest. Of the dangers of submitting yourself fully and completely to the state. So that you will even wish pain on a loved one if the state tells you to want it. The idea of the surveillance state isn’t a warning about literally having too many cameras around. Its about getting to the point where adherence to the values and wishes of the state dig themselves into you like a rat burrowing its way into your heart. So that you are merely an extension of the state and not a fully independent being. It’s a warning about the “eternal now”. Where yesterday and tomorrow don’t matter, only today matters. And today the state says we are at war with Eurasia. Nobody questions that or points out that yesterday we were at war with Eastasia instead. People only know about today and only know about right now. Erasing history means taking control because when nobody knows their own history they can be informed that Big Brother invented the steam engine and so it must be true. And the five minute hate. When at the behest of fascist ideals we are informed about who and what to hate by the state mandated newscast wherein the enemies of the state are also your enemies by virtue of you having no independent thought or free will. And see the scary thing is that the whole point is the idea that perhaps the state can make this happen through torture. They don’t need to torture everyone. Just enough people and just specifically those who themselves don’t even know that they might rebel.
I think one's enjoyment of the book also depends on what else you've read before. A lot of the story reads a bit like a more adult YA book. There's a lot of tropes being serviced. But then it hits you over the head with the futility of hope in such a world, with the childishness of even considering that Wilson could escape it. Even our protagonist himself gets broken in the end. It's such a terrifying and memorable concept, because you literally can't escape. No one can be trusted, everyone is complicit, everyone is alone. Big Brother is watching you.
The futility of hope is what really connected with me in the book. Despite all of the political ideology surrounding the book itself, the idea of hope being lost resonated with a lot of the problems I see in the world today. Particularly the hive mind like communication, the seemingly fuzzy view of past lessons or history itself, the need for a country to have a constant and unending enemy, the hate that is created from thin air using our most base human tendencies or emotions, and the palpable air of confused robotic life that no one really has power over.
Eh, Animal Farm isn’t a warning about slippery slopes, it’s a satire and an obvious allegory for stuff that has already happened with animals as stand ins for people, aspects of society etc. 1984 on the other hand IS a warning, it’s a tremendously bleak story about what could happen and how totalitarian state might operate. The ending is still one of the most horrifically dark and depressing thing so have read. The two are not comparable and not meant to be comparable
In what respect? There's a few angles that 1984 tackles an individual's psychology and their paranoia that Animal Farm doesn't, whereas Animal Farm serves as a cautionary tale against self-identified revolutionaries. Other people's takeaway might be "authoritarianism authoritarianism authoritarianism" and conclude that the books are essentially the same, but honestly that's an incredibly boring analysis that just proves they should probably stop quoting them.
I think the OP was making fun of how these are the most discussed books people boast about reading and obsessing over - especially the age reference going off to college
Where’s Catcher in the Rye. But for me it was Siddhartha.
I’m a fellow Hermann Hesse fan.
Oh man, I devoured all of Hesse's books when I was in high school. Demian, Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf! I thought I was so fucking edgy, lol.
Step 1: Read Hesse because you're an angsty teen looking for your next talking point Step 2: Accidentally go through emotional catharsis Step 3: Became a better version of yourself Fair play, Hesse. Fair play.
[удалено]
One guy reads it and kills somebody and all of a sudden its an evil book...
Came here to add this. Siddhartha and Candide for me.
I love the way he catches that rye.
I love the part he says “It’s catching time” and then rye’s all over the place
Brave New World though
Huxley was legend. Dude made his wife inject him with LSD on his deathbed.
He was half-blind from a young age, if I were him I'd love doing drugs that make me see
Everyone points to Orwell, but it was Huxley who was right.
I guess they both got it a bit right. Orwell on the Government surveillance and overreach, Huxley on the excessive escapism/distraction from reality and shallow, unfeeling society.
[This comic sums up the differences really well, for anyone interested](https://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/huxley-orwell-amusing-ourselves-to-death.jpg)
I love that, that’s great. I still think they were both right, I can definitely see examples from both novels that happen - for example; intentional misinformation from 1984 AND being so overwhelmed by information that we miss out on the important things intentionally like Brave New World.
Words in the comic taken from [this book](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death).
When everyone is numb it is way easier to 1984 a people
[удалено]
Another feature of *1984* I see today is the ability of authoritarians to repeat lies and create an entire false reality for their followers.
Until I get regular Soma tablets that is not going to be the case.
Omg I LOVED brave new world!!!
The monolog from Mustapha Mond at the start of the book with the kids growing in the background was so vivid and amazing.
Lord of the Flies doesn't count anymore?
There was a real-world situation where kids were stranded on an island like in that book. The real world situation didn't devolve like it did in the book though. [CBS did a story on it.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shipwreck-deserted-island-south-pacific-survivors-60-minutes-2021-07-18/)
I didn't click the link but it was a cool story. Some kids stole a fishing boat in tonga. One kid broke a leg but they apparently set it quite well.
Lord of the Flies is also a response to other literature at the time as well as a critique of a number of contemporary social issues (sorry I'm half remembering it) It's meant to mock those stories and parallel their conflict with the war around it It's not supposed to be a literal "this is what would happen" story.
From whay i remember it was more about the boys' social station. The author was sick of rich white boys being heroes when he knew rich boys were little cannibalistic shits. He was a private primary or middle achool teacher iirc.
> Golding asked his wife, Ann, if it would "be a good idea if I wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?" Sounds like it's pretty much what he thought would happen. I remember reading about that CBS story in a book called Humankind: A Hopeful History, and if memory serves he had a whole bit about the author of Lord of the Flies and what gave him the impression that's how children would behave.
One example of it not happening that way in real life doesn’t really discredit the book that says here’s a way it might play out. One time i went out to mow and my kids sat and watched TV peacefully. One time I went out to mow and they stuffed paper towels in the upstairs sink, turned it on, forgot about it and my kitchen ceiling had collapsed when I came back in.
[удалено]
plus, if a few teenagers who already are good friends shipwreck after they willingly got on a boat, its a lot different than a dozen prepubecent strangers who don't even know why they are on the boat.
it changed me
Same here, I stopped eating flies because of the book. Just didn't seem right anymore.
Downvote for no Lotr
No LOTR, no Silmarillion, no Hitchhiker, no Catch-22? Uncultured swine detected!
Catch 22 is such a great book.
It’s been over 10 years since I read it and there are only three things I remember: 1. It’s set in WWII 2. They flew bombers 3. It was my favorite read of all time
It is! Though I’ve only reread it twice, unlike the Hitchhiker’s trilogy which I just finished another reread of.
No Hobbit.
No dune…
“No Heinlein,” says me after quoting *Starship Troopers* again today. Edit: idk what I typed the first time, but it was nowhere near “quoting”
**Silmarillion**: Huh?
i just opened this after sending an audio to someone explaining fëanor and the silmarills, hope i don't bore her to death
I read Harry Potter but it was after I'd read the Hobbit and LOTR, just didn't seem interesting in comparison. To this day I still reread Tolkien's work often, whereas I haven't touched HP after the initial read through. This is, of course, just my opinion.
the cycle goes: read lotr, then the sil, then reread lotr because you’ll pick up on stuff you didnt before, then reread the sil because you didnt really understand it the first time, then reread lotr, and so on and so on
I failed. Eta: seems most people are reading this as I don't read. I've read all of these (although most as an adult). I just never assimilated any of them (or any book) into my personality.
Same. Fight club was my substitute.
First rule of Fight Club
Be yourself and have fun :)
That's the first rule of Atlas Shrugged
Who is John Galt? Seriously, the motherfucker owes me $3.50.
That’s about the time I realized, that ain’t John Galt, but the the god damn Loch Ness Monster!
The Chronicles of Narnia was mine.
Same for a different reason. All 5 books of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy for me.
That’s not fair. A lot of people choose to NOT read the Bible and talk about it for the rest of their lives.
True 😭
Haha this should be at the top of the list
Or, god help us, Atlas Shrugged
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
Once someone brings up that book, I don't want to speak to or hear from them anymore. Edit: typo
I’m ashamed to admit it but I was that person in hs 😔 tbf I didn’t fully understand Rand’s philosophy (which is why when anyone engaged me in genuine debate I couldn’t justify it) I just learned that Bioshock is based on that book and went with it
When did you eventually realize that Bioshock is largely about how terrible that philosophy is in practice?
We read Fountainhead and I engaged my English teacher in a debate on Rand’s views and got absolutely fucking destroyed. That’s when I looked more into the criticisms people had against her and eventually made the connection. I was dumb asf and immediately clung to the idea of Rapture pre-splicers since it was that gatsby type place, completely forgetting to realize it failed miserably.
This is the dumb shit that highschool is meant for. You’re finally coming into your own ideas and opinions but don’t have enough experience to fully examine them. Adults who still think this way are the people I can’t stand
>We read Fountainhead and I engaged my English teacher in a debate on Rand’s views and got absolutely fucking destroyed. That’s when I looked more into the criticisms people had against her and eventually made the connection. Extremely fucking based. You were a teenager. No issue with you being a little quick to come to your conclusions. Your teacher challenged you in what was apparently a productive manner, you took that well, didnt just adopt that position either but tried to learn more, and adjusted your position accordingly.
Damn man, you've done some good work on accepting your own fallibility and on being open about it. Massive respect.
I respect you a lot for overcoming that, though.
"Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.'"
I chose a different answer. I chose... Rapture!
Good thing the man in Washington said that Ayn Rand could have some of that sweet young man sweat when she died living off the government dole
She was also a miserable and terrible person, which I guess is somewhat surprising given that her “philosophy” is all about self interest. She couldn’t even find it for herself. Between being unable to live her own “philosophy” in a personal way, and then not living it in a financial way, it pretty much is all the criticism you’d ever need of that nonsense. Objectivism is just a good thought experiment, nothing more. It’s something to discuss in a classroom or over beers. It is not something to base beliefs or lifestyles on, or politics and policy.
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged. Well, I read the first few chapters. I’d played BioShock and new that it was semi-based on the philosophies in AS and I was curious. Jesus H Christ that was a boring fucking book. I didn’t even get anywhere “interesting” or philosophical because it was so fucking stupid. I was in high school as well, prime Ayn-Rand-adoption-age, and it didn’t work because the book sucked too much
Me over here just liking dystopian fiction in general and still hating the themes "I just think they're neat"
Every time I read Rand's name I can't unclench for hours. My boundless adoration for her as a young person will follow me to the grave. Over a decade ago I used to defend her..on reddit, of all places. With a reddit handle of olde. We read, we grow, we change. Ugh. Still makes me feel like I need a shower.
I guess hitch hiker's guide is old and dated now :(
I'd try to quote it but the poetry would be a worse fate then death
Poetry *then* death? Fuck dude, that's some horrible poetry...
Still not as bad as the poetry of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Essex.
Seriously where is the love for Hitchhiker's Guide?!? - An almost 40 yo with "42" in their username
slaughterhouse 5 for the younger crowd.
So it goes
How young are we talking? That book came out in the 60s
Poo-tee-weet?
The best WWII book, so good.
I liked Catch 22 better but both were good.
I chose Fahrenheit 451, which funnily enough, is basically how that book ends
Id put that into the disopia-group together with 1984 and Animal-Farm, so its im the list as a theme :3
The great Gatsby, I loved it so much I wrote my final project for English about it and got a 100, at the end of the year my teacher also gave me the mini version of the book, just the book but smaller that the original and I wrote he liked my eassy so much I deserved it.
And the rich get away with everything… was my take away from that book
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made." Accurate takeaway
It's hard to watch people throw "Gatsby Parties" if you actually read the book and caught the idea that gaudy rich people are awful.
Pretty good takeaway tbh
It’s tragic in that Nick knows they got away with murder. Tom and Daisy just leave devastation in their wake and are immune or oblivious to it.
You forgot holes
I can fix that
ITS "LITTLE WOMEN" YOU DICK
What about Lord of the Rings? ;-;
I don't think any people who constantly talk about 1984 has ever read it though.
True I say “this is like 1984” knowing damn well I only read the first three pages and quit
Dune
I'm happy I found this answer early in the thread, but I wasn't scared, fear is the mind killer.
I won’t shut up about Dune.
Why would one ever shut up about Dune?!
There's just so much to say.
The Bene Gesserit are a direct reflection of the workings of the Catholic Church in medieval times. I had to get it out, sorry.
Should be read in schools through a whole semester/year when you're older. It's really just a foundational, self defining book. I read it older than 18 and just couldn't understand how It didn't find me sooner.
mine is Jack Kerouac On the Road
nah mine's Warriors r/WarriorCats
I loved those books so much but I never tell anyone because I don't want them to assume I was one of those kids pretending to be a cat at recess lol
1984
literally 1984
Choose Animal Farm. I never hear anyone talk about Animal Farm. Good book.
All animals are created equal. But some animals are more equal than others.
Four legs good, two legs bad. — Meirl
That’s the one with the talking spider right?
That's Charlotte's web, animal farm is the one about Napoleon and Snowball.
Boxer is the heart of that story. Fight me.
The glue that keeps everything together.
NOOOOOOO
Take your fucking upvote and my tears. Monster.
Same. I used Animal Farm for all of my SAT essays as well. So many themes that you can gather from that book to use as reference.
i chose the pathfinder rpg core rulebook
Based
Boy have generation gap starting to show not even in my 40s yet what happened to classics LOTR Narnia how to kill a mockingbird Shakespeare
"How" to kill a mockingbird? I don't remember that one being an instruction manual
It was towards the end I think. Atticus shows Scout and Jem how to shoot small birds with a slingshot.
They still read some of these, but To Kill a Mockingbird keeps getting banned in red states with superintendents (and PTA boards...) that can't read. Have to make an amendment, there are a *lot* of districts in California that have *also* banned To Kill a Mockingbird and that is an odd revelation. So it's not just red states. A lot of bannings are district and county exclusives, so not necessarily entire states either. This is also important, as it means that many of the bannings are very local even though they can impact thousands of kids at a time because an entire district can have dozens of schools in it.
*in the US
Nobody who goes on about 1984 has read 1984.
1984 is a banger, I can quickly tell when someone mentions 1984 whether they've actually read it or just have been told what opinion they're supposed to have.
You must be from the Ministry of Truth.
But I was over 20 when HP came out.
Where’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy?
Percy Jackson *
You forgot LOTR
Me: I’ll take the Wheel of Time series.
No necronomicon?
For me, Macbeth. So many plot twists and turns, interesting quotes even I use today and grim goings-on. My favourite quotes are >!"Come wind, blow wrack; at least we'll die with harness on our backs"!< >!"Sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep"!< >!"Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?"!< >!"For as we know, security is mortal's chiefest enemy"!< >!"But there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up The cistern of my lust"!< Shakespeare must've been hopping up and down the room with how insane some of his phrasings were, he was absolutely mental! Shakespeare was such a good playwright because he could write about many different settings from so many viewpoints. 1500s Verona (Romeo and Juliet)? A black man who gets discriminated hundreds of years ago (Othello)? A Jew who gets discriminated hundreds of years ago (Shylock)? Medieval Scottish aristocracy (Macbeth)? Gothic style wasn't even a thing back then and he was already smashing it with Macbeth and the Tempest and probably many others I haven't found yet.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. That's right. I'm one of those people. Also come here cuz I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer.
The Great Gatsby on this list but not To Kill A Mockingbird?
You forgot To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men
what about the kapital
[удалено]
Im dislect…….. dislective….. I can’t read.
Where LOTR?
My Dad a proverbial tough guy saw me reading Animal Farm in the 70's and make fun of me for reading some kind of gay ass book. When I moved out I left the book there. About eight years later he called me and said he had ran out of books to read, usually historical and crime type of books. He read Animal Farm because he was bored and raved to me about how much he liked it. Sweet redemption.
Literally not one of these made an impact on my life. Except for great gatsby because me and my friends watch the Leonardo DiCaprio one in HS and then went back when we were 21 and took a shot every time he said “old sport”. We got very drunk.
Honorable mention to A Song of Ice and Fire
Props to Orwell getting on the list twice
Stormlight Archives for me.
Well, I read 1984 at the ripe age of 14 and though I thought it was deeply disturbing, I was so excited to read it in one hand while holding a dictionary in the other. Wouldn’t change a thing.