Lying about literature
Heard in the news that a big British survey shows that one in every three lies about what books they've read to impress other people. I might have done a thing like that myself - it's hard to avoid when you study literature, and one of your classmates ask you "You HAVE read Joyce right?", with a look of disbelief in her eyes.
But also being a former literature major I shouldn't have to lie so much anymore, anyway I'm working hard to make it so...so let's see how I compare to the list of "Books most recently lied about having read":
1. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R Tolkien
Did once lie about having read it in grade school, but have since read it twice.
2. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
I've read this one, mostly to be able to say I have, though it was kinda entertaining.
3. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
This is old-school chic-lit, so no.
4. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus – John Gray
Hell no!
5. 1984 – George Orwell
Unfortunately not yet, there would be a high risk that I did lie about having read it, since everyone knows the themes making it harder to get caught.
6. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone – J.K Rowling
Yup, actually read all of them. Very entertaining and a fast read.
7. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Nope, got it on my shelf though. Have read some other Dickens though, don't like him that much.
8. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
See "Wuthering Heights"
9. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Sure. Poorly written, fun story.
10. Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
Nope, and never gonna.
So that's 4 out of 10, a bit shabby for a bachelor in literature perhaps, but then this list is kinda dull. It's much more impressive (and true in my case) when you can say you've read things like:
The Divine Comedy - Dante
Aeneid - Vergil
Crime and Punishment - Dostojevski
The Illiad - Homer
Don Quixote - Cervantes
Magic Mountain - Mann
Madame Bovary - Flaubert (actually also lied about that one once, to impress a girl I meet on a train)
And so forth...
That's about it for todays showing off.
4 comments:
hi hi tilfældigt at du skriver "hun" om din klassekammeret, næppe...
Forøvrigt kunne man vel lave en tilsvarende liste over indierock band som man har påstået, man kendte.
Jeg kan også anbefale at du læser 1984. Den er faktisk rigtig god.
Det var faktisk meget velovervejet, og drejede sig ikke om nogen specifik situation. Jeg prøvet at huske altid at sige "hun" i sådanne situationer, for at kompensere for århundreders undertrykkelse af kvinden ;) Jeg er så PC...(politisk korrekt)
ja ja, så siger vi det. Det var altså ikke en freudiansk fortalelse, men derimod et udtryk for politisk korekthed. At lyve om litteratur har altså intet, at gøre med at imponerer det modsatte køn, men derimod at kunne begå sig i det bedre borgerskab ;)
Nej nej, at lyve om litteratur har meget tit noget at gøre med at imponerer kvinder (det sker vist ikke så tit omvendt ifølge undersøgelsen), som jeg også skriver om Madame Bovary, hvor jeg løj for at imponere en pige i toget, når jeg nu har indrømmet det, hvorfor skulle jeg så ikke indrømme det andet hvis det var en freudiansk fortalelse?
Den er skam god nok, du kan selv læse mine seneste opgaver og se at jeg også skriver "She" hvor jeg kan.
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