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Posted
The only thing I learned is that James Joyce is apparently the greatest author in the history of everything

 

I certainly don't agree with that...but he's top five easily.

 

My top three favorite authors (this is going to make me look very non literature-snobbish):

 

1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. Stephen King

3. Tim O'Brien

 

I rulez.

Posted
The only thing I learned is that James Joyce is apparently the greatest author in the history of everything

I could argue for this, probably, though his self-cultivated inaccessibility is a big hitch depending on how we're defining greatest author.

 

As for math, I'm your total inverse. I took pre-calc in 11th grade, then ran far away and never looked back.

Posted

Despite my success in writing including publication (mostly local), I don't like it all that much, yet it's my major simply because if it comes naturally to me, I might as well pursue it in hopes of gaining some appreciation for it. Like Czech, I went to an advanced school, only to end up in a public school, except my high school was generally considered one of the best public schools in Ohio, if not the entire mid-west. Luckily, I ended up in a top academically ranked university. I abandoned my academic prowess that I obtained through my early years for sports. Baseball, specifically. I coasted through AP Lit and my various writing courses in HS, because like everyone else here, I had the writing failures trying to promote the concept of symbolism and forcing it. I also dislike poetry, but not because of the dynamics required to write it, but from reading other examples of poetry through the channels of creative writing classes and Lit classes have turned me off with ridiculously bad rhymes and horrible calculated attempts at following meters. Just thoroughly excruciating and these were supposed to be good students. I shudder to see how bad the regular students were. Thinking about it, they probably were better because they wouldn't be caught up in trying. The more effort you exert in writing, the more forced it tends to be.

 

I can't stand the people along the lines of Viva's depiction and like Czech; I wonder exactly where do these people go? I'm fairly sure, if they ever had real talent at anything, they wouldn't be at the coffeehouses to begin with.

I'm glad I avoided being pretentious in relation to literature and other similar forms but I'm not pleased that I erased all my interest in the field due to my concentration of playing sports in my teen years because I would like to get that back. However, from Czech's diatribes, he really just needs to stop moaning about his shortcomings or what have you. He knows this, but like the generation he admonishes, he's scared of change and he's almost content to remain in his own rut. I get that, I had my time with that but it's certainly not healthy by any means.

 

You can only complain for so long, because eventually you will be dead. Maybe not physically, but your purpose and resolve will extinguish. Czech admits that he's already getting there and there's no reason for it. It's not the shitty school system, it's not your attraction to sports or expired interest in wrestling, it's not the pretentious toolboxes that we're all surrounded by. It's your own unforgiving nature. Here's the good news, you're a young kid like us all. Some get pass this rut sooner and some will take longer. You've shown sparks of life. Just find one avenue and run with it. Kotz was right. Just get up and do it. This isn't directly targeted for Czech, but rather all the other hapless and miserable people roaming this place. As different as our opinion's may be on music, society and the posturing blowhards at the local coffeehouse may be, we're all people that gone through a tunnel that starts from different origins but if we follow the path that we choose, we could end up outside that tunnel.

Posted

The only thing I learned is that James Joyce is apparently the greatest author in the history of everything

I could argue for this, probably, though his self-cultivated inaccessibility is a big hitch depending on how we're defining greatest author.

 

The only Joyce I've read is Ulysses and I really only "got" about 35% of that. I've been meaning to re-read it but I just can't seem to muster up the energy. Oh well.

Posted

The only thing I learned is that James Joyce is apparently the greatest author in the history of everything

I could argue for this, probably, though his self-cultivated inaccessibility is a big hitch depending on how we're defining greatest author.

 

The only Joyce I've read is Ulysses and I really only "got" about 35% of that. I've been meaning to re-read it but I just can't seem to muster up the energy. Oh well.

It's tough to re-read, because, really, who wants to re-read something that huge and (often) alienating? I love Ulysses, and I find myself occasionally reading 10-20 pages here and there. Someday I might revisit it all the way through, but having gotten through it once I like the grab bag approach.

Posted
Most of your peers (well, our peers, I guess I should say considering we're in the same age range) can boast of life experience roughly consisting of getting piss drunk every Friday and Saturday night from ages 15-19 and playing Madden and GTA the rest of the time.

 

:(

Posted

BTW, I know you guys are reading all these works for fun (I think), but school totally sapped any enjoyment of fictional reading for me

 

aye

 

It was the complete opposite for me; I enjoyed (and still do) recreational reading but I hated to be forced to do reading assignments for school because my teachers always picked the dullest books and I hate having be told to read a book by a certain date when I have no intrest in it after the first chapter. Thank God for Crib Notes and skimming the book to hit the high points before a test, I guess.

 

Right now I'm trying to read every Tom Clancy novel ever written (yeah, make fun); I think I only have a few titles left.

Posted

I remember those days of playing GTA3/VC with my friends and never actually doing anything besides causing havoc, killing people and blowing shit up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, we played the game too.

Posted

BTW, I know you guys are reading all these works for fun (I think), but school totally sapped any enjoyment of fictional reading for me

 

aye

 

It was the complete opposite for me; I enjoyed (and still do) recreational reading but I hated to be forced to do reading assignments for school because my teachers always picked the dullest books and I hate having be told to read a book by a certain date when I have no intrest in it after the first chapter. Thank God for Crib Notes and skimming the book to hit the high points before a test, I guess.

 

Right now I'm trying to read every Tom Clancy novel ever written (yeah, make fun); I think I only have a few titles left.

 

I'm reading all the additional Dune books by Frank's son. Definitely not as much to absorb as there is in the original books.

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