

Humans being gluttonous motherfuckers who will consume stuff until we’re wrecked is indeed older than dirt. Some of the oldest records we HAVE of humanity involve people committing excesses of the sort.
– Having a bunch of organisations driven by profit independently come to the conclusion they can exploit this flaw in human persons to maximise their profits, leading to a systemic vicious circle where we consume more, so they create more artificial needs for us to consume, so we consume more, so (…) – Is, in fact, a product of capitalism.
Right?
With hindsight, now being more or less the target audience (a 30+ year old disillusioned with life) – A lot of the books they pushed on us (I’m in Brazil, so of course they pushed the Brazilian canon of Literature) were objectively super good?
But y’know
When you’re 15 years old, and have to read a book that is not only very old (thus has a vocabulary you are already struggling with, just because OLD), but is written by grown-ups for grown-ups (ergo, a lot of the fun leans on heightened versions of life experiences adults have all either lived or seen someone live through) – AND you have to do it in a hurry (because you’ve got like 4 other assignments for that week, and the deadline looms) – AND you are expected to not only get into the nitty-gritty of its themes and such, but to do so in a way that your teacher approves of?
Like how can you not hate reading after that? I was lucky I’d been exposed to literature I liked prior to that, so instead of thinking “I hate books”, I just thought “wow all these books suck”.
They didn’t suck. But they just… Were very much not for me?
Like. Senhora, by José de Alencar, is a deeply enjoyable book if you’re a grown up. Two rich people who married for money and hate each other’s guts, playing the perfect husband and wife to society while shooting subtle barbs at each other whenever they get the chance? AND then they end up fond of each other after years of this? Inject that into my 30-year-old historical-romance junkie EYEBALLS please. But at age 15? I hated it.