Too many of these books look absolutely untouched.
Dante is the exception. It is also a hard one to understand. I assume you tried hard to read it but failed after 20% or so, an then you more or less ended your reading habits, even though most of the other ones (you got one on every birthday) are extremely easy stuff.
Good observation, I prefer to read on a paperwhite ereader, even if it isn’t used as much anymore. I just pirate ebooks of books I bought to support the authors. Missed the mark slightly with the birthday guess though.
Do you think Dantes friends back in the day went “sick reference, bro your references are out of control, everyone knows that” but now it’s been like 700 years or whatever and… it takes some effort now? Like right now we all know who “the orange idiot” would refer to, or “the king of rock n roll”, but will people know that in 100 years even?
I mean, sure, but the references he’s making is to some very deep takes on some of the most famous literature in history. Sure there’s a bunch of contemporary shade throwing in there but the whole thing with Dante is its ridiculous cultural span, it’s like Joyce in its sheer literary density.
And no, there’s zero chance this kid went through it and got it, but it matters he showed interest and dedication in trying. Took me the better part of thirty years to even get close to understanding that shit, and historically I’m not alone, it’s not an easy text. Beautiful tho.
There are worse books to pretend to have read in your bookshelf.
I don’t know, I found myself trying to look up what everything meant all the time, like there’s a person in purgatory called la Pia. “Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma”, so then you have to know about this woman who was born in Siena and was murdered in Maremma by her husband, which was probably a widely known reference back then, but now I just feel like I’m lacking context. But maybe it’s better to just sort of go with the flow for those things?
Too many of these books look absolutely untouched.
Dante is the exception. It is also a hard one to understand. I assume you tried hard to read it but failed after 20% or so, an then you more or less ended your reading habits, even though most of the other ones (you got one on every birthday) are extremely easy stuff.
Good observation, I prefer to read on a paperwhite ereader, even if it isn’t used as much anymore. I just pirate ebooks of books I bought to support the authors. Missed the mark slightly with the birthday guess though.
Do you think Dantes friends back in the day went “sick reference, bro your references are out of control, everyone knows that” but now it’s been like 700 years or whatever and… it takes some effort now? Like right now we all know who “the orange idiot” would refer to, or “the king of rock n roll”, but will people know that in 100 years even?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
That’s fucking funny.
Sick references bro.
I mean, sure, but the references he’s making is to some very deep takes on some of the most famous literature in history. Sure there’s a bunch of contemporary shade throwing in there but the whole thing with Dante is its ridiculous cultural span, it’s like Joyce in its sheer literary density.
And no, there’s zero chance this kid went through it and got it, but it matters he showed interest and dedication in trying. Took me the better part of thirty years to even get close to understanding that shit, and historically I’m not alone, it’s not an easy text. Beautiful tho.
There are worse books to pretend to have read in your bookshelf.
I don’t know, I found myself trying to look up what everything meant all the time, like there’s a person in purgatory called la Pia. “Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma”, so then you have to know about this woman who was born in Siena and was murdered in Maremma by her husband, which was probably a widely known reference back then, but now I just feel like I’m lacking context. But maybe it’s better to just sort of go with the flow for those things?
I don’t think he had friends /s
/s