Forum members who'd never opened a book in their whole lives

[Tooting Carmen]

How do you get into Ivy League schools then if you don't have to read any books?

You can be excellent at one particular specialism, e.g. neurology, without necessarily knowing that much about anything else.

[Tooting Carmen]

$$$, family connections, saying the right things on applications, essays and interviews, and being the correct race, ethnicity, sex, political orientation, sexual orientation

I believe they have so-called "legacy places" for the children of former students?

[Anatolya]

Fiction cultivates abstract thinking, critical thinking, intuition and discernment from an EARLY AGE, which non-fiction cannot do.

You cannot expect children to read much non-fiction, especially at an early age.

I was reading myths and stories at an early age, then this progressed to adventure fiction and love stories,
then this progressed to dystopian sci-fi and dystopian political in my teens, and then this progressed to non-fiction as an adult.
I have not read any fiction for more than a decade I think.

As an adult I am more visual, consuming films;
but fiction provided me with an imagination, creative intuition and deep understanding that would otherwise be lacking.

Understanding fiction provided the FOUNDATION for understanding many other things, and the benefit is lifelong, intangible.

So it is convenient to look down on fiction, but without fiction, you would not have progressed to non-fiction in the first place!
Everything starts with fiction, or with myths and fables, or with the Bible if you prefer.

Also, people who are too logical and not intuitive are walking through life half-blind.

I am dead sure you’re a Jane Austen reader

[Tooting Carmen]

I am dead sure you’re a Jane Austen reader

Or Bronte sisters or Beatrix Potter.

[Kess]

East Asia is insanely competitive. In Japan teens who don't get to Universitiy they desire not so rarely commit suicide. Asian families make insane amount of pressure on their children to suceed academically. This includes Indians in the west.

[#Oda#]

I would say that the reverse is true. Ten Chomsky books might be worth one high-quality fiction novel (I doubt it though).

He is/was super-intelligent, and some of his books are great (like Manufacturing Consent),

but Chomsky is a profound hypocrite on a fundamental level, like other wealthy communists, and is not honest with his reader.

And nothing he wrote can replace The Camp of the Saints, Brave New World, Animal Farm, 1984, etc.

We read the three bold ones at school. They were compulsory in most schools afaik.

[Hithaeglir]

You can be excellent at one particular specialism, e.g. neurology, without necessarily knowing that much about anything else.

I doubt anyone has such high specialism, if they have just graduated from high school. However, it was mostly tongue in cheek.

[Tooting Carmen]

I doubt anyone has such high specialism, if they have just graduated from high school. However, it was mostly tongue in cheek.

Oh OK. Still, the point is that even university graduates and even postgraduates may not be necessarily all that knowledgeable about the world outside their specialism.

[CosmoLady]

I am dead sure you’re a Jane Austen reader

Haha, why do you say that? I could not get through Pride and Prejudice, it was mind-numbingly boring for me.

Or Bronte sisters or Beatrix Potter.

I could not get through Wuthering Heights either, it was boring for me as well. I did enjoy Beatrix Potter as a small child!

I am not excited about female authors in general, but I liked Mary Shelley's novels.

[Tooting Carmen]

Haha, why do you say that? I could not get through Pride and Prejudice, it was mind-numbingly boring for me.



I could not get through Wuthering Heights either, it was boring for me as well. I did enjoy Beatrix Potter when I was a small child!

I am not excited about female authors in general.

What about Dickens, Chaucer, Chesterton and Woodhouse?