https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MREJl0Cb4UQ
people read the "classics" cuz they think it's gonna change their life, but they really are just... stories. some good, some outdated. if these authors had any answers, they'd write a philosophy book instead. and some of them did, they weren't very helpful either.
#2160
3 weeks ago
#2172
3 weeks ago
>they'd write philosophy instead
Not sure what you're referring to as classics, but different genres obviously attract different readers. Do you want to reach a certain type of sperg who spends his days studying his navel? Write philosophy. Want to reach another type of sperg who spends his days navel gazing ? Write comicbooks.
Most books are published because the publisher expects a profit, you make profit by being saleable at a scale. If I want an actually good/insightful book I can do a lot better than browsing the barnes and noble new shelves, and to a large degree this means looking backward.
Also, philosophy is relevant to the average person but the average philosophy book is part of a network of navelgazing that has more self references than the marvel cinematic universe. A solid standalone novel, or history book or what have you can make the same philosophical points without refference to that paper universe but only living in the reader's understanding of reality.
Not sure what you're referring to as classics, but different genres obviously attract different readers. Do you want to reach a certain type of sperg who spends his days studying his navel? Write philosophy. Want to reach another type of sperg who spends his days navel gazing ? Write comicbooks.
Most books are published because the publisher expects a profit, you make profit by being saleable at a scale. If I want an actually good/insightful book I can do a lot better than browsing the barnes and noble new shelves, and to a large degree this means looking backward.
Also, philosophy is relevant to the average person but the average philosophy book is part of a network of navelgazing that has more self references than the marvel cinematic universe. A solid standalone novel, or history book or what have you can make the same philosophical points without refference to that paper universe but only living in the reader's understanding of reality.
#2186
3 weeks ago
^ "classics", you know, old books that people still remember and think are good, "great" even. but people's expectations are too high. you can read something like "notes from underground" that describes a particular type of man accurately, but it's just like, what do i do with this information? i can see myself in the underground man, but how i stop being the underground man? the video is about this new trend of people treating "classics" as self-help literature, but there's rarely answers in these things, they just describe something in reality, it's descriptive, but not prescriptive, it has no real answers. so in the end, even these "great" books are just entertainment at the end of the day. you finish reading it and you can just say "neat" and move on with your life, with no great impact or clarity on your own path forward.
#2189
3 weeks ago
"Neat" is a big improvement over the average self help book which makes me somewhat disgusted, to the extent that I'm not bored, by the third page. Maybe the point is more that self help is garbage rather than that 'the classics' are good, per se.
Sometimes I think its also healthy to get a bit of an alien perspective on things, old books even lousy ones can do that, but from smart and good people maybe its better.
Sometimes I think its also healthy to get a bit of an alien perspective on things, old books even lousy ones can do that, but from smart and good people maybe its better.