• cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    The four horsemen of things people on the internet don’t read, but still comment about endlessly:

    • The Bible
    • The US constitution
    • 1984
    • Whatever article is in the OP
    • threeonefour@piefed.ca
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      3 days ago

      I actually read 1984 because of all the “literally 1984” memes. It’s dry but it does hold up surprisingly well.

      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I never finished it. The protag was a weird horny misogynist. And though he had fundamental problems with the state of the world, he was too cowardly to do anything to counter it except to sneak around fucking some nympho chick, and, in fact, was derisive of those who actually do rebel against it. The dystopia of it was interesting, but the narrative was not remotely engrossing and often insufferable after the initial world building, at least up the point I dropped it. Maybe it got better towards the end, but I’ve read a synopsis of it since then and it doesn’t really seem like it. Not my cup of tea.

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The protag was a weird horny misogynist.

          Well he is forbidden to have sex if I remember correctly. Only the proels may enjoy such acts

          • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Grain of salt here because it’s been a hot minute since I read it. IIRC, He’s allowed to have sex with his wife and only his wife, and his wife and him hate each other. He wants to have lots of casual sex but that’s only allowed among the party members. He laments that the party members won’t sleep with him and that all the women he’d like to sleep with are untrustworthy and will snitch him out. His wife ends up leaving and he meets the nympho and they start meeting up for sex. That’s what I remember

      • silasmariner@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        As a thought experiment I guess.

        Not very good as a novel, though. Same as Aldous Huxley, the characters barely exist, it’s just a platform for pontification. Give me George Eliot or William Faulkner any day of the week.

      • a_person@piefed.social
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        3 days ago

        Same, I actually really enjoyed it as a dystopic book. It might have been dry but the storytelling was great.

    • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Everybody has enough time to read the constitution. Also 1984 isn’t too long. The bible though? I went to church for 20 years and most people couldn’t make it through the whole thing. It certainly doesn’t help that like the first half of it is boring as hell. (I say that as somebody who got so bored with it I also have never read it through.)

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        The Jefferson Bible is a great way to read the NT without needing to spend too much time with it or roll your eyes at the supernatural bits.

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        There is no article in this thread - I was speaking generally because people usually reply only to whatever the headline is.