Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Help Needed: The Pretentious Reader Starter Kit

Tophat665 · 12-26-2004, 01:47 PM

To be truly pretentious, you'll need:
Something short by James Joyce, say Dubliners or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass.
Something short by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The missus knows her Spanish, so I asked her, and she said something in Spanish that I think is the Spanish title of No One Writes to the Colonel. The General in his Labyrinth is the one I might suggest, though.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War. For a non military person to read it appears pretentious. If they are military, then Niccolo Machiavelli, On War is the pretentious choice.
Anything at all by Philip K. Dick. "The Nine Billion Names of God" is one, and The Man in the High Castle is the other. (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is every bit as pretentious, but, because they made it into a movie with a much slicker name, no one notices that any more.)
Sylvia Plath, anything at all.
Ginsberg, "Howl".
Mythologies or The Eiffel Tower by Roland Barthes. There is nothing more pretentious than a French anthropologist trying to structurally analyze everyday life. (Actually, they're both pretty good reads too. 80 to 120 pages of one to 3 page essays. Good for the bathroom.)
Mrs. Byrne's Highly Selective Dictionary of the English Language, 200 pages of words everyone should know, but nearly no one does.
The Transitive Vampire, grammar made goth.

That's it for now

12-26-2004, 01:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
Tophat665 Minion of the scaléd ones Location: Northeast Jesusland	To be truly pretentious, you'll need: Something short by James Joyce, say <i>Dubliners</i> or <i>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</i>. <I>The Tin Drum</i> by Günter Grass. Something short by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The missus knows her Spanish, so I asked her, and she said something in Spanish that I think is the Spanish title of <i> No One Writes to the Colonel</i>. <i>The General in his Labyrinth</i> is the one I might suggest, though. Sun Tzu, <i>The Art of War</i>. For a non military person to read it appears pretentious. If they are military, then Niccolo Machiavelli, <i>On War</i> is the pretentious choice. Anything at all by Philip K. Dick. "The Nine Billion Names of God" is one, and <i>The Man in the High Castle</i> is the other. (<I>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep</i> is every bit as pretentious, but, because they made it into a movie with a much slicker name, no one notices that any more.) Sylvia Plath, anything at all. Ginsberg, "Howl". <i>Mythologies</i> or <i>The Eiffel Tower</i> by Roland Barthes. There is nothing more pretentious than a French anthropologist trying to structurally analyze everyday life. (Actually, they're both pretty good reads too. 80 to 120 pages of one to 3 page essays. Good for the bathroom.) <i>Mrs. Byrne's Highly Selective Dictionary of the English Language</i>, 200 pages of words everyone should know, but nearly no one does. <i>The Transitive Vampire</i>, grammar made goth. That's it for now __________________ Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.