What they really seem to be saying is this: "I didn't find meaning in this book, therefore anyone who claims to have found meaning is not telling the truth." And this boils down to the following syllogism: "I am an intelligent reader therefore anyone who is also an intelligent reader will share my opinion of this book anyone who doesn't share my opinion, therefore, isn't an intelligent reader." A valid inference, no doubt, but hardly sound. What does it mean, then, when someone calls a book "pretentious"? Let's dissect it. On the contrary, these words say a lot more about the speaker than they do about the thing they're supposedly describing. Nothing is inherently boring, just as nothing is inherently pretentious. It's a lot like the word "boring," in that they both seem to fool the user into thinking that they mean something objective, when in fact they're highly subjective. I can't help but noticing how often the word "pretentious" has been thrown around in the reviews for this book.
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