“Oh look at this guy reading a BOOK at the cafe, he must think he’s sooooo cool! I get he thinks a woman will sleep with him cuz he’s so smart and cultured.”
Or maybe my roommate is having their partner over and they kicked me out and I’d rather do this than just be on my fucking phone for two hours?
The last time I read a book in public, three different people came up to me to say how much they liked the book, but there was no negative reaction. It was Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, and it was in one of the DC airports.
I’d rather do this than just be on my fucking phone for two hours?
Oh so you’re better than me because you don’t have 30 hexbear tabs open on your phone browser?
No but really, I should start carrying around the book I’m reading so that I can get a chapter in at lunch instead of reading the stupid shit you assholes say all day. I say this with love tho.
This is your own fault for reading in the mosh pit at a Metallica concert. Everyone knows that hardcore Metallica fans are illiterate.
And if you’re upset from reading this comment because I’m trashing Metallica, you’re a fake fan because here you are reading like some kind of nerd
There’s a whole class of “getting mad at someone who is minding their own business” that we get acculturated into growing up. Once you step back and percieve it you can start to intercept it but I don’t think you’ll ever fully be rid of the impulse.
Well put
i haven’t had this happen 2 me. i have had a stranger ask what i was reading and then visibly tune out when i tried to tell him, because in fairness it sounds boring as fuck (sam tanenhaus’ biography of whittaker chambers)
The performative male thing is further social conditioning for fascism, like tradwives were, its purpose is to pressure men into becoming more stereotypically masculine again, by equating men who change themselves for the sake of female affection (or you know just have feminized hobbies) with social predators.
Fr I had a friend give me shit for reading Bell Hooks saying it was part of the performative male stereotype. Sorry I’m not gonna stop being a feminist because some people pretend at it for attention or whatever. it’s good shit and we should be encouraging people to dive into works like these and step away from toxic masculine thinking
Which is funny, because i’m built like one of those “masculine men”, and i’m an outspoken communist that fights for the rights of everyone.
I have the reverse experience reading in public. Usually people are polite and curious but I’m reading something that weirds them out. Like the other day I was reading a collection of Louis Althusser essays, coworker asks about it, I respond with something like “uhhh, just some philosopher guy. I’m not sure how to explain succinctly.”
Too late, guy asked grokkk which responded with something like “Louis Althusser was a schizophrenic French Marxist who murdered his wife in 1980.” And I mean I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that because yeah that’s who he was
It’s very depressing to me that many people won’t even really google anymore. Without thinking - they’ll wolf down the AI SLOP instead.
in extremely mild defense, google has been garbage for a decade because of SEO and advertising, but i do wonder why the impulse is to LLM instead of wikipedia for looking up somebody with a published book
but i do wonder why
Google’s goal now is to keep people at a google. Ideally for them - you won’t click away. For example - their Youtube embeds aren’t right-clickable. If you want to open them in a new tab - you have to click twice. First click to make the vid an interstitial. And then you can right-click the Youtube link overlay on the vid.
And there’s “top of the page” syndrome. People assume that the best stuff is at the top of the page so why keep scrolling? When people go to a news site - their main focus is the top of the page. The same is true for google. And google puts its AI slop embed at the very top of the page. Plus the drop downs answers are likely (very likely?) AI answers too.
Also some people (many people?) have decided an AI slop is good enough. Google has caused Wikipedia’s traffic to drop.
:yea: the internet was a mistake now they will grill me on fanfics
Asking grokkk what “My Immortal” is because I saw someone reading it in public.
But yeah lol. “I’m just reading.” “Reading what?” “Uhhhhhhhh…”
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO ASK ME THAT!Why did my brain immediately go to the Evanescence song?
i just say its the bible and try to hide the cover
More like “My Immortal Love For Jesus Christ Our Lord”! What’s a “Draco”?
I belly laughed at this, it would be just my luck something like this would happen to me too.
I once took Octavia Butler’s Dawn with me to jury duty and sat shoulder to shoulder (so they could easily see the words on the page) and uhh the book gets to the part where they start talking about breeding program and im like 😩 i swear I didn’t know this would happen
idk about that. reading in public is fine but i usually read on my phone because i can fit so many books in that bad boy
No they don’t. You’re projecting or something idk.
Yes they don’t. You’re projecting or something idk.
Someone the other day was talking about how people in america are becoming more unhinged and mean in public life. Like 10 years ago no one would blink an eye at someone reading a book on a park bench, maybe if it was fucking Mein Kampf or Sasquatch Pounds My Ass by Chuck Tingle. Nowadays people are looking for an excuse to be a dick.
I’d be worried Sasquatch would have some nasty STDs. he’s never even seen a doctor
Sasquatch is rare and endangered because they don’t have sex.
The rare volcel cryptid.
Bit idea: Sasquatch reproduces asexually
Sasquatch Pounds My Ass by Chuck Tingle.
Uhhhh…
If you’re having trouble finding it, that might just be that the title is actually “Eight Bigfoot Buckaroos Hate My Butt And Pound It”.
Hey Mr. Tingle is an artist but it’s not for the general public.
bring back yelling NERD at people reading in public
nope sorry, that’s performative male tendencies. (that is to say, ableistly performing your superior attention span on my adhd ass)
(god i wish my brain would let me read outside of a hyperbolic chamber…
)Really it’s insensitive to the illiterate for me to read at all
third eye opened. next time some nerd tells me to read theory, they’re friggin in for it
You do need to read your theory, though.
no! i don’t wanna!!
(jokes aside once i’m through candidacy classes with my org i probably will start to cycle in some theory with my fiction in my free time, so probably earlyish next year)
what would performative enby tendencies be
this is shadowboxing, no one is paying this much attention to you
A horde of mean teens ridiculed me for reading William Shakespeare’s Star Wars at the cafe last week. Saying “look at this nerd shit” and held the book over my head as I begged them to at least not remove the bejewelled butterfly bookmark.
They removed the bejewelled butterfly bookmark.
this dude is eating BEANS!
Coffee beans in my coffee from the cafe, yes.
They removed the bejewelled butterfly bookmark.
I imagine 99% of people don’t give a fuck but that 1% sure do like complaining about it
Probably masking their self consciousness about their self-perceived low intellect.
Only time i ever judged someone for reading was a dude on a plane reading mein kampf
Were they at least shaking their head to show they disagree?
No he looked like a dork and he looked really into it
Enjoying or amused by? Because it’s a really self aggrandizing book, and it’s pretty amusing when you know how it ends.
I can imagine non-Nazi reasons to read that book (like if you’re a history student studying the rise of Nazism), but I def wouldn’t do it in public
What if I’m dead dead edgy?
/s. I can barely even read.
