White Problems: Poorly Read Partners
April 7, 2008 by clander
“It’s Not you, it’s Your Books”
by Rachel Donadio
The New York Times, March 30th, 2008
“We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility.”
Stuff White People Like examines the issue: Can you date someone who is not well read?
Yes:
Dating someone who is not as well read as you is a good idea since these type of people are more easily manipulated in terms of both actions and future tastes in books. The ability to entirely craft the literary tastes of your partner is highly desirable as it reinforces your own impeccable taste and allows you to play a literary version of Henry Higgins
No:
In social situations there is a good chance that an poorly read person will admit to not having read Nabokov beyond Lolita or that they are unfamiliar with Umberto Eco’s essays on reading. Of course, there is the off-chance that they might commit intellectual and social suicide by asking your friends if they “loved The Da Vinci Code as much I did?” This is extremely embarrassing and reflects poorly on them. Ultimately, their actions are more of a statement about you and your inability to date someone of adequate literary experience.
Final Call:
It is recommended that you date and then subsequently dump someone who is considered “poorly read,” simply for the story. It will show your commitment to the importance of books and reading. But beyond that singular experience it is unacceptable to seriously date anyone who has not read the right books.
Thanks to Jake Adler for sending the article.
I guess I better step my game up, I’ve never heard of Nabokov or Umberto Eco.
Well, then we can’t dance together.
http://athenasmom.wordpress.com/
http://www.tucc.org
Here we go again. What a joke. ANOTHER JEWISH blog entry.
Here is the list of non-whites quoted in this so-called “White” item:
JEWS:
Rachel Donadio
Anna Fels, a Manhattan psychiatrist
Alisa Rosenbaum
Judy Heiblum
Ariel Levy, the author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs”
Marco Roth
Laura Miller
Nora Ephron
Ben Karlin, a former executive producer of “The Daily Show”
plus:
Augusten Burroughs (homosexual)
Here we go again. Another lobotomy candidate.
Lobotomy for you would help you.
I love jewwwwwws
So do I!! I love the vulgar and the banal!
Shabbas, please tell me you’re joking. Perhaps it’s the ridiculosuness of some of the comments on here that has broken my sarcasm meter but if serious:
Are you actually equating jews with “the vulgar and the banal?” Seriously? You’re taking a late 19th century modernist idea promoted by the intelligentsia of the time and embracing it in 2008? Will you draw a cartoon of Mahler with a hook nose like the New Yorker did when he was the conductor of the Metropolitan Opera? How about pull a Gertrude Stein and hate on your own people. Maybe you’ll go all the way and Wagner it up with some vitriol towards the whole race and promote white-supremacy?
I’m not Jewish, but I’m also not an ignorant asshat.
Sarah Silverman-esque comics, pornography, Pee-Wee Herman, our modern Hollywood trash = the 20th century jew.
Go listen to your “Arnold Schoenberg”. You don’t impress people with intelligence and taste. You are clearly not a Proper White Person. You are indeed ignorant, unable to even see, think or hear.
boooooooooooorrrring
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haha, you just said asshat. i’d say that’s pretty ignorant.
mee tooo
http://amillionthings.wordpress.com
So many candidates! Where to begin?
look in the mirror, if it’s not already broken.
5 year old
DO NOT WASTE YOU WISDOM ON SUCH TRASH TALK
brown eyed girl: don’t you mean another lobotomy victim. I’m sure Mr. Keating qualified for “free” elective surgery on the basis of need years ago. With the benefit of hindsight, Peter is living testimony to the tragically disappointing outcome of this long discredited procedure.
No, Rosemary Kennedy was a victim of lobotomy. And ironically enough, at the hands of her very white parents. Peter Keating, on the other hand, is in need of one, as are all the other like minded anti-semitic, racist, hate spewing ass wipes who are spamming this great blog with their vile words and ideas.
If only Peter had fre health care.
My, my, my now who is spewing the hate and anger? LOL!!!! Such tolerance!
You just have to love these intolerant types that think that they actually represent “tolerance”. What a crock!
Go to the Asian girls thread and you will see some of the most vile anti-White bigotry and hatred. I’m sure you’re appalled. Right?
Loser.
Yes, guilty as charged! I’m intolerant of intolerant racisit bigots who come on a someones fun blog with the sole intention of spewing white supremacist cyber vomit. If the same crap is on the Asian thread, then yes, I’m appalled and disgusted!
No, you ding-dong, we’re talking about anti-White racism and anti-White bigotry found here.
Ah, well in that case, resume the anti-semitism on this thread! How silly of me. If non whites of any kind have insulted whites on the Asian thread, then that’s a good reason to hate Jews and not believe that Christian whites, not of Jewish heritage, can’t be snobby and pretentious about their reading habits. Thanks for making that clear to me ding-dong.
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You can’t read straight, and are an apologist for anti-White haters and bigots!!! Yes, jews can be guilty of it too. What is wrong with you? Are you obtuse?
Oh gag! I’m done with you and all your alter egos. Ciao super creeps!
What the world needs now is hate, sweet hate.
Rapoport and brown eyed girl: Intolerance, fear,
hatred, jealousy dwell in all of us. The better part
of wisdom is to acknowledge our universal demons and control control them in the light of day rather than project them on
onto each other in the dark in order to conquer an imaginary moral high ground.
We humans need to confess that we are racists and
haters alike. Humanity is best nurtured when recovering racists and haters start to embrace other recovering racists and haters.
“We humans need to confess that we are racists and
haters alike. Humanity is best nurtured when recovering racists and haters start to embrace other recovering racists and haters.”
Oh lordy! Come let us pshychobabble together…
Israelis will tell you that Semite Arabs, especially
Palestinians, represent the most virulent anti-semitic
threat to the security and existence of the Jewish State.
The military occupation; the building of more settlements and barriers in the West Bank manifests nothing more than self-defense against a vile, unreasonable enemy.
Palestinians will tell you that Israelis are resurrected
Nazis carrying out the gradual ethnic cleansing of
a native people from the Palestinian “homeland.”
Checkpoints, military incursions, the expropriation of
farms and homes for Jewish “settlers”
constitute a deliberate, ruthless policy for pushing
Palestinians out of a greater Israel.
Each side has demonized the Other. They are awash
in a sea of blood and the international
community led by the United States must step in
and stop it. I stand by what I said with respect to
the long range healing process which makes enduring
peace, tolerance and empathy possible.
Come, let us be reasonable and CHILL OUT! Clander’s posted article was about book snobs. Some people here only believe Jewish people are capable of book snobbery and other crimes against humanity. I’m saying we’re all equally capable of such things. I’m happy to sing Kumbaya with anyone else willing to, but I doubt the white supremacist hate mongers here are up for it. So, Save me the foreign policy tolerance lesson please.
brown eyed girl:
We seem to be largely in agreement though our long-winded discussion wandered far off
topic. Come to think of it, most of the comments here
are off topic. Maybe we all talk too much.
Time to sit quietly and read a good book.
LOL, you’re so right. The Jew haters won’t be happy about this, but I happen to be reading Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Oh, but I forgot, they already don’t like me, so it’s all good
War against Christmas?
The most anti-White people in America since 1900 have been Jews!
Liberal Jews hate Whites and everything they stand for. Always have.
I didn’t realize that white people were so oppressed.
It must be hell to walk around being discriminated against due to the color of your skin. Lost opportunities and such.
It must a frightening proposition to be vilified for imaginary crimes and held responsible as a group for the actions of individuals, real or imaginary. Being racially profiled and being targeted for harassment and violence.
It must be terrible to live in fear of being rounded up for your religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political views, or just because a group of people with power decided that you were not “the right kind.” Ethnic cleansing, witch trials, and genocide.
While these tactics are not exclusive to any race, it would do well to remember that what is reaped is what is sown.
If there is a problem in this country, the responsibility lies solely with those who created the problem.
If the problem is one of racism, defined here as individuals or groups of individuals being held as representative of a race through gross generalization that is used to denigrate the quality of said race, then the moral impetus lies with all races to create solutions.
That being said, shouldn’t there be an additional charge to those in positions of power and numeric advantage to bring more to the table?
How about this: you and a group of your friends write a formal apology on behalf of white people detailing and acknowledging crimes of racism and oppression across the board. Then there can be a real discussion of responsibility. Until then, cry yourself to sleep and write about how bad you feel in your little diary. You know, the one with the lock on it. By the way, I did it with your sister and she said I was better than you in bed. Plus I’m not white.
boo hoo
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Shabbas, Come-let-us-reason, Brown-eyed Girl, Rappaport…
Will you all just get a room and get on with it?
… Or at least exchanges skype addresses and take your faffing offline.
Isn’t it time to admit that this isn’t “stuff white people like”, it’s “stuff white liberals like”. I’m from the bay area and I clearly understand the distinction.
In regard to Jews - many white liberals are self-loathing Jews. The only thing they hate more than Israel is white southerners who respect and support Israel.
yeah but the jews will still cash the white southerners’ checks!
Duh, the joke is that most things “black” or “mexican” people like arent’ universally liked by all of them either. You can expect the white stereotypes to be totally accurate when the stereotypes for other races start being totally accurate.
Wait a minute…Jews aren’t white?
No, Semites are not White, neither are Arabs or North Africans.
This kind of paring the ethnic groups is inane. Genetically, we’re all from the same pool of genes–African genes. I can’t help it that my ancestors had the wacky notion of heading into a cool, wet climate. One growing season–what were they thinking?
Oh, yes, and I love this blog entry.
Right! And there’s nothing that has changed since. That’s why Somalis and Chinese are identical. Um, no.
Oh, yeah, and there are clearly no Asian, Caucasian, Black, or Hispanic Jews at ALL…. *facedesk* Judaism is a religion and a culture, not an ethnicity. Like any other culture, it changes with geography as its people convert in or assimilate out. I wonder what would happen if you were confronted by a blonde, blue-eyed, square-shouldered Jew of German extraction. If you think they don’t exist, you have obviously lived in your parents’ basement for far too long.
Yeah. It is definitely the stuff of white liberalism. I’m not sure that to my family members living in logging camps and in dirt poor backwoods towns…. that what books their partners read is all that important to them. And they are white too!
and right they are!
when did nazis get cool again?
The Boys are Back In Town!!!!
The problem and intrinsic evil with prejudice is that the bigoted person never realizes what they miss. It is just basic common sense to make decisions about people ONE AT A TIME. I admit to being prejudiced too- against ignorant, bigoted white trash of any income. Yet, these people never waste much of my time because they quickly reveal who they are. They are not smart enough to hide it for long, and they seek others of the same polluted, faulty, indefensible mindset. Then I can excuse myself from their life immediately & permanently. There are better ways to spend time: I could call my mentor for advice on investing: he is Latino. Or I can email my ex-girlfriend: she’s Jewish. Or I can go have a drink with my wife’s friend from work: she’s African American. I am deeply thankful for my friends and colleagues of ALL ethnicities who have enriched my life immeasurably. I hope I do the same for them. I also hope Mr. Keating that you wake up, and realize you were taught to feel this way and it costs you a lot. But I don’t expect it to happen, you will probably just continue to lose.
I think what people are trying to say, Senor Keating, and this is important for you to understand, is that we fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Classic! Thanks, that made my day
My almost inappropriate pleasure!
Hi, I love you, and that was amazing!!!!!
Peter Keating? A Fountainhead reference? I bet you think you’re pretty clever with that one. Now please leave and don’t come back.
A censor and bigot in our midst? What are you the NKVD?
Peter Keating eh? From The Fountainhead? Yep, you sure are one clever troll. Please see yourself to the exit now.
Peter, what do you mean by this being “another jewish” blog entry? Curious!
Hamb: The article is a jew quote farm, not White. My, my Chichikov such tolerance you exhibit!! LMAO!!
I heart you. But not in an inappropriate way. In the way that I have to because without you the sun would never shine and I would never understand the meaning of the word ” tolerance” or patience or acceptance or understanding or compassion.
ayn rand is for suckers.
you are a jew quote farm
and your brain is inedible
does being homosexual affect your color?
REALLY?
Since when did RELIGION or SEXUAL ORIENTATION have anything whatsoever to do with the amount of melanin in one’s skin?
Of course your name would be Keating….
Preach on, Keating!!!
I need to start reading more. I have a slew of books that I want to read, but haven’t had the chance to in a long time.
—–
http://www.sporenormous.com
Nabokov wrote Amy Fisher’s biography.
who is amy fisher?
HA HA NOOOOO Lolita is a book a wrote way before Amy Fisher! lol…damn I
Im really white to know the book Lolita then….and to have read beyond them lol
McCain hates Nabokov.
Check me out….
http://mindysphotojourney.blogspot.com/
yeah me too. I thought the divinci code was great!!!
http://www.platenuts.com
You know your fairly well read when you can read the Gabriel Garcia Marquez book 100 years of solitude and you can clairly remember each characters names and actions. A hard task since over a period of a couple hundred years everyone in the family is named after a previous person, so you get one name for about 10 different people, and there is about 7 different names in the book, so.
clairly? clearly…
You know you’re NOT fairly well read when you don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re” and you can’t quite figure out when to use “is” as opposed to “are.”
Nice attempt at self-congratulation, though.