Luigi Mangione and the Decline of Literary Men

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[@keturahspencer]

I do agree with some of your points, but there is no reason to insult The Lorax nor children's literature.

[@user-tf2tt]

There's nothing wrong with Mangione's reading lists. It feels like you made this video to feel superior to him. Apperently, you two have different tastes and that's okay.

[@bikinginboston]

People aren't championing Luigi because he's a "literary man." They're doing so because they're fed up with the health care system in particular and the corporate control of our society in general. To the point where corporations control both political parties.

[@thelostcosmonaut5555]

You call Brave New World basic but not Moby Dick? This video feels like it was made by someone who submits op eds to the New York Times.

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

Thank you, yes, Moby Dick absolutely laps Brave New World.

[@blackfrost9011]

@@BooksYouHaventRead I could be wrong but I don’t think he was commenting on the quality of the book. As good as it may be, If we’re gonna talk basic, Moby Dick is basically the main character of dude novels

[@Slowdive52]

You hit my general thoughts on this subject directly on the head, and much more elegantly stated than I could ever articulate. Great video!

[@nicokrasnow1851]

Kinda unfair with the Brave New World take, yes, it's something you could read in highschool but this doesn't make it a basic book. In my country many highschools have Jorge Luis Borges shortstories in the study program, and he was far from basic. Aside from that, I agree with most of the points presented here.

[@goldbug1180]

Elon Musk didn't write a book; it was a biography about him that was quite penalizing. Peter Thiel also didn't write a book; it was written by a student based on the notes he took during Theil's only ever class about start-ups.

[@TimothyCHenderson]

I think he just means the books that teach you how to be a personality/tech guru... get rich quick style stuff that sell a system that the author never actually followed. They get rich off of you buying their books, seminars, and courses.

[@LoneWulf278]

I’m just so sick of people acting like everything is being “feminized”. Nobody is taking anything. There are just a lot of things men no longer want to do because they’d rather do other things.

[@johnmacrae2006]

@LoneWulf278 Current day parallels Aldous Huxley’s dystopia novel a bit, doesn’t it?

[@user-tf2tt]

Exactly. Nobody is keeping white men from reading, writing, or publishing fiction. I guess they just want to do it less than they used to.

[@nuxxy_]

and where did this feeling come from? this video is about lit ma'am

[@AleksandarBloom]

Luigi Mangione is a doer, if anything. Also, he's still very young. All those books on Goodreads nurture and develop that kind of an attitude. And considering all of his accomplishments, they seem to work. Checklist approach, as you said, is totally hollow, but as you stack books under your belt, and as you mature, just like LLMs, they will have an effect, and you will eventually arrive to Miss MacIntosh and friends.

[@RyanRothwell]

You're basic message is: Luigi Mangionie bad because he read popular books. That is one of the most elitist things I have ever heard. Just because something is widely read and discussed does not mean it is "solved" and does not mean that it is barren of possible future interpretations. What you're doing is the male equivalent of people who shame women on Booktok for read popular fantasy books. Let people read what they want and stop looking down on them as reading popular books.

[@nataliaalfonso2662]

I mean I agree with all your points, but certainly we know Luigi just embraced mystery in the harshest sense. He has no idea what the future might hold for him now. And, as an agnostic facing the death penalty, and doing it coldly calmly and collectedly, he’s embracing perpetual cosmic mystery forever. Also, you’re a little confused about how he’s being incarcerated. He was in the SHU until today, and he can receive mail, but he has no access to the internet or the outside world yet. He is facing trial, not serving a sentence yet.

[@og666]

is the luigi mention necessary? you don't really present observations that make that connection feel important. i like & agree with your call to action, but i think it would be better expressed in a video that doesn't talk about him. i see your final point but you hide that contribution in the last minute which many don't get to (unfortunately). you could spend the runtime on your final thoughts instead - it'd be more interesting and more persuasive than "guy in news likes basic books. hehe."

[@FrankJeeves]

Snobbery

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

Thank you

[@josephpchajek2685]

Prettty much, this guy has no idea how he sounds.

[@josephpchajek2685]

Couldn't listen to the whole video, 7 minutes of talking without saying anything, while coming across pretty arrogant.

[@sp123]

That's most content on the internet, especially videos. It's much harder to do this in text, that's why reading is so important!

[@timhanson3678]

What are you even on about?😂😂 I swear people’s ability to grasp basic concepts in an argument is just getting worse and worse.

[@josephpchajek2685]

@@timhanson3678 I got straight to the point. The guy thinks he's some kinda genius and he's arrogantly talking like other people are idiots. He's full of himself on a level you don't often see and he proudly displays it.

[@blackfrost9011]

I watched the whole video and definitely feel that at least a third of the video came across like filler imo.

[@Platonkie]

@@josephpchajek2685 Yea idk how people can't pick up on it

[@estebanmartinez5930]

I would think the critique to his reads and what not is that he didn't really have any actual political theory (that i know of), but still people treat him like this political descedent. The man read the Unabomber manifesto and thought that would guide him to an actual political revolutionary action which is not the case. So i think people in general should read more political theory as in marxism and actually revolutionary stuff if one wants to take the radical route.

[@mikereadstheworld]

10:07 Beautifully put, embracing the mystery. Great video.

[@thefarrm]

I watched the whole video really hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be quick click-bait in the end 😢

[@ron_91260]

Mystery is more often discovered--not planned ahead. The lists are usually books one feels he SHOULD read based on reputation.

[@catrinamcdermott4211]

Great to hear a reader promoting books as a way in which to add substance to our life. Please read A Twist in The Tale of The Devil/Volte-Face, a new Irish double book by a couple trying to revive the idealism which has vanished from world literature and is so urgently needed now that humanity is facing extinction. Thank you

[@blackfrost9011]

No hate intended when I say this but this video doesn’t feel very constructive imo. There’s nothing wrong with his favorite books being widely liked reads. Most of them are widely liked for good reason. With that being said, if you have deep cuts in mind that you feel young men would benefit from reading, I feel a more productive approach would have been to structure this around recommending books you feel would help these people grow. That being said, on a technical level this video is really high quality and has the vibe of a much larger channel. In addition you’re a very confident speaker and you do a really good job of appearing comfortable in front of the camera.

[@watcher8582]

10 years ago I did a PhD in physics. I wonder if I should make a youtube video dunking on 99.9% of people who only ever read basic physics, pointing out how lazy and uneducated they are, and in particular emphasize how lacking their background is in case they have right wing politics. E.g. batter physics - it has a gigantic impact on the world right now and should be on everybody's list. Those people have visited high school, they could easily level up! They don't want to challenge themselves, they merely want to flatulate themselves.

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

A good analogue in the physics world is Angela Collier's recent video "billionaires want you to know they could have done physics". She takes to task the lazy and uneducated physics pontificating of tech billionaires who, she argues, talk about physics as a means to gain public acceptance/legitimacy. People like Lex Fridman (and certainly not only him) do the same thing with reading/literature all the time. And then they read four books in two years and they show you how dedicated they actually are to the hobby.

[@nataliaalfonso2662]

It would be incredibly important to allow people who only have rudimentary knowledge of fields they cite and weaponize to finally understand they are dumb.

[@watcher8582]

@@BooksYouHaventRead Yeah, I've seen it, pretty nice video. Not sure if this is a rebuttal to my critical comment, through. I don't see what calling people's reading selection basic does. Better for Luigi if he digged deeper on some topic, or wider in general. But you present it as a character flaw. My comment is intended to show that there's many topics where it would be crucial that most people in the world learned the basic of it (e.g. batter physics), but it's just absurdly unrealistic the bulk of people would actually dedicate time time it - in part for time reasons. Being outright angry of Luigi for not having more Moby Dicks in petto looks like you want to oppose his character him. To other him, for some reason.

[@of_the_Word]

I didn’t finish my first semester of college and this year I started reading regularly again. I do feel that I read in an attempt to acquire things such as knowledge, wit and self understanding but I don’t read self help books and would love someone to tell me if they think my books are bad choices. Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Notes From Underground by Dostoevsky, Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, half of Dante’s Inferno, some of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, I’m now going through through Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche and On Dreams by Freud. Personally I love these books and I think they’re absolutely the best I’ve ever read since I was a kid and read all sorts of fiction.

[@clemenssebastianarnold606]

Pretty interesting take. A bit uncomfortable, since I notice it fits my own basic bro selection and K really want to treat my brain better than this. Thanks and regards from Germany.

[@nuxxy_]

since when is snow crash basic highschool lit? its part of our cultural movement in the age of imformation not a stienbeck classic thats always in school

[@28daysleitor]

I wonder what the Venn diagram looks like of people who think Infinite Jest is some sort of literary pinnacle and people who fantasise about being besties with a murderer.

[@yaeli_i_guess]

I love infinite jest and am very much pro capitalism and hate Luigi lol

[@Throwaway-p2p]

Sorry to say but you probably wont be in contact with Luigi Mangione. If he doesn't get the death penalty they'll probably put him somewhere like ADX Florence where the only thing he'll be allowed to read are his cell walls.

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

Ok but Unabomber was at ADX Florence and he had penpals so don't let your memes be dreams.

[@nataliaalfonso2662]

You can write to inmates at ADX

[@sirguy6678]

Good video! Every problem can be solved with handwringing and fretting by overly emotional writers.

[@calmyourmind5665]

*Looks left* Sapiens. *Looks right* A Jack Reacher novel. *Hangs head and sighs* But I like the Great Gatsby!

[@hallucinatingsiren]

DENY DEFEND DEPOSE

[@ItsJaseShawty]

Lex Friedman has the book taste of somebody who likes joe rogan.

[@maggyfrog]

what, you don't like dostoevsky?

[@radSIZ]

Great stuff.

[@setsen337]

So you're saying there's a market for me and I should get an mfa??? 🥺

[@iyahvibes]

Deleting my goodreads. Done. DOONE. DUN.

[@jamessorrel]

I never had one. Can't see the point

[@Graduation7484]

I've gotten more into reading. Currenlyt reading red rising saga, I read a lot webnovels though, like Lord of the Mysteries

[@bicho6313]

I agree with some of your points but how is Mobi Dick not another basic dude novel? Next thing you're gonna recommend he read Hemmingway. Also, I don't know that Luigi was setting out to be a "literary man." Lots of people just read what they're interested in. Sounds condescending to assume.

[@trolledchaos6531]

Why aren't young men reading anymore? Maybe because young men aren't getting the chance to write anymore. I know that in the past, men have completely dominated all types of publishing, and that was very bad. Now, it's the exact opposite. If you want proof just look at the debut author list for this year, there's a few guys, but it's like 80% women.

[@coorz64]

What barriers exist that prevent men from writing? Seems like a bad excuse to me.

[@d.n5287]

​@@coorz64i imagine that due to the past favouritism of men in the publishing industry, modern publishers wanted to course correct by adding more female voices to literature. Unfortunately, they over course corrected and now its "oops all (80%) women"

[@MrDublem]

​@coorz64 literally this. We're in an era where self-publishing is easier than ever. You can legitimately reach a broad audience without going through the traditional path. If white men want to write, the opportunities are more accessible than ever, assuming they write stuff people want to read. And there's the crux. Men don't read, at least nowhere near as much as women do. So unless you want to write content that appeals to a predominantly female audience (which is absolutely an option), you're gonna have a hard time. Don't like it? Put down the video games, read more, and encourage your friends to do the same. But complaining instead about how hard it is to be a white man is both pathetic and wrong.

[@trolledchaos6531]

@ I’m not here to argue that men have it so hard and poor us. It just seems to me like young women are over represented in literature right now compared to their male counterparts. And yeah, I think that’s probably going to have an effect on young male readership.

[@enotsnavdier6867]

Young men have every chance to write, they are not being barred or blocked from publishing at all

[@Rdlpi]

Are inmates allowed to watch youtube? Lol

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

I think we can all agree that for the sake of this channel this one should be allowed to.

[@Shmyrk]

🤓

[@autofocus4556]

When I saw his house mate said Luigi recommended the group read Outliers I thought, this is the genius everyone is talking about? Lol

[@johnjohn2570]

Woah this dude sucks please don’t suggest more my KZbin overlords