Classics to Cure Your Brain Rot

An essay about attention, elitism, and five accessible classics

With the rise of generative AI allowing students to bypass their assigned readings of classic literature, the simple act of sitting down to mindfully read such books becomes in itself a radical act. To deny yourself that rush of dopamine, that pull of the endless doom scroll, is to reclaim agency over your own intellect when everything surrounding you demands complicity in the rotting of your brain. As the internet has advanced at alarming rates within the past decade, so has our collective literacy and attention spans dwindled.

I will be the first to admit, as an avid student of English literature, that I continue to struggle with maintaining my focused attention while reading. It should come as no surprise, when many of these works are often challenging, even without the added distractions. They force us to learn new words, to understand different modes of being, and to make sense of historical realities or prescient insights into the future. These works cannot be “consumed”, for they implore us to read between the written lines, sit with uncomfortable truths, and to chew on themes we may not even fully understand.

Perhaps you have been meaning to delve in for a while, wanting to so badly understand what makes these books great, but have also felt intimidated. What if I’m not smart enough? What if I just don’t get it? I believe one of the biggest barriers to entry for people like this is the perception that classics are somehow reserved for an intellectual elite who are gifted with the knowledge to understand them. While I do certainly see pretentiousness looming around the space, I strongly reject the idea that literature is inherently pretentious, acting as a sort of status symbol of a higher class.

Reading does not make you better than other people, but it does help you better yourself. It is, in my view, the ultimate equalizer. There are certainly those out there who tout their shelves as a way to signal their superiority, but if they are not doing the internal work to properly sit with its significance outside of dense language or “correct” interpretations, then they are missing a large piece of the puzzle.

Literature gave my life purpose and meaning. When I was a young teenager filled to the brim with depression and anxiety, it was in these books that I found myself. Those internal struggles that marked the wreckage of a traumatized childhood found its voice through language. Growing up with a single mother that had 3 other children, moving from room to room and often being forced to fit into small spaces to make do, I retreated into my safe spaces. For the majority of my adolescence, I escaped these harsh realities in my own fantasies, drifting along and never facing that internal darkness.

That is, until my Sophomore year in high school when I had been bumped back down to CP English after transferring in the middle of my Freshman year into Honors. This new school had a much higher academic standard than I was used to, and I immediately felt inadequate compared to the bright young students around me who all came from more traditional backgrounds. So, needless to say, I know exactly what it’s like to not feel smart enough.

But that was never the case. I simply learned differently. And truthfully, it was only in that “standard” English class that my intellectual potential truly flourished. All thanks to one teacher whose passion was contagious and who brought life to what every student insisted was “boring”. From making a field trip to exclaim Walt Whitman’s barbarous “YAWP” to turning off the lights and doing a dramatic reading of T.S. Elliot’s “The Waste Land”, he made us understand its importance. From then on, my passion was ignited, turning me into an independent, critical thinker who looks deeper.

Of course, this is only my own experience, but I believe it illustrates the transformative power of reading. As this same teacher also said while drawing a stickman with a mirror and the shining sun behind him, literature functions as a mirror to indirectly see the sun, so that we may see the Truth without becoming blind.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky to have had a teacher like this, and I am painfully aware of another barrier to entry into classic literature: being forced to read them in school. Try to forget the way your teacher taught them and become your own. These books are not for a select class, they are for everyone. There are no “right” answers when it comes to literature. Only different interpretations that can be plausibly argued, perhaps some better than others. Every individual that takes it upon themselves to read is adding to the overall conversation about them. You might not think so, but you do have something to bring, and all you need is your own unique perspective.

It isn’t really about analyzing “why the curtains are blue”, so to speak, it’s about how the book makes you feel while reading it, what it makes you think, and how you are able to relate to it. Does it remind you of anything in your own personal life? In history? Or in the world today? The critical thoughts you bring are more than enough. You don’t need to look up how it’s “supposed” to be analyzed right away. Sit with your own interpretation of it first, then, if it calls to you, do your own research. You might find an entirely different angle than the lens you were told was the “correct” one, and that is worth cultivating, perhaps now more than ever. Especially when Netflix is demanding that movies restate their plot three or four times in the dialogue because viewers can’t stay off their phones. So how can we possibly be expected to read when that requires so much more effort from us?

But here is the truth: you do not have to sit idly by as your mind erodes away. You can take the power back into your own hands, but it should be done with purpose, intentionality, and most of all— genuine enjoyment. With all of this to say, I have curated a list of classic novels to get your mind working again with three criteria in mind: Length, Readability, and Relevance. How long is it? How accessible is the language? And how relevant is it to us today?

Furthermore, I have chosen to focus my attention on modernist works because they tend to use simpler language that is more familiar to us right now. Anything that was written before the turn of the 20th century is going to be more challenging. Not hard or impossible, mind you— but challenging. I have personally gotten so frustrated at seeing these supposedly “beginner-friendly” lists only to come across names like Jane Austen or Fyodor Dostoevsky. They are both amazing novelists, but I would not say they are “easy” for someone who is either new to reading or wanting to return to it. Whether done so intentionally or not, when you put such books onto a list labeled “easy” you are signaling something that does come off as pretentious.

“If this is not easy for you, then you don’t belong here.”

I am here to provide another perspective and to hopefully offer a road towards reading without judgement. Although the books I’ve chosen have accessible language, its themes and meanings still have plenty of depth and relevance. So, if you are looking to get your brain working again, here are 5 classics to help get you started.

1. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Length: 77 pages

Reading Time: 2 hours

This book about a salesman who wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach is a wonderful starting point to dip your toes into reading. Not only is it short, but it is incredibly well written and continues to be poignant to this day. It was originally written in German, so you’ll need to find a translated version. I would recommend Michael Hoffman’s which you can find in the Penguin Classics version. If you are at all drawn to the uncanny and the absurdist, you will find a home in this story. The atmosphere he creates manages to be at once both familiar and alien, deserving of his signature Kafkaesque style we continue to reference to this day.

“When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed. He lay on his tough, armoured back, and, raising his head a little, managed to see—sectioned off by little crescent-shaped ridges into segments—the expanse of his arched, brown belly, atop which the coverlet perched, forever on the point of slipping off entirely.”

2. Animal Farm by George Orwell

Length: 112 pages

Reading Time: 4 hours

This is yet another fantastic read that you can get through rather quickly. Although on the surface its story about a group of farm animals overthrowing a human may seem like a fairytale for children, it is anything but. This short novel uses anthropomorphized animals in order to illustrate complex political themes. In fact, the author George Orwell, felt so strongly about the importance of its messaging that he had to go to multiple bookstores in order to make them move his work out of the children’s section. It was also quite controversial to Joseph Stalin, who actively worked toward delaying its publication and banned it from the Soviet Union. So, if you would like to read a book that once really pissed a dictator off…then you know where to go.

“Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.”

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Length: 192 pages

Reading Time: 5 hours

There is a reason that Fitzgerald’s novel is considered an American classic. This Jazz Age novel about a mysterious and wealthy neighbor who throws lavish parties in order to attract an old flame is both a social critique on hedonism and an apt representation of 1920s America. Its prose is also poetically beautiful all while managing to remain accessible as he strips down that glitz and glamour Fitzgerald himself must have been so drawn to. Inspired by his own doomed adolescent romance with a young socialite, the allure of the American Dream is thoughtfully examined. If you are looking for some drama and disillusionment wrapped in some of the most beautiful prose you will ever read, then this will be a great choice for you.

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”

4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Length: 240 pages

Reading Time: 8 hours

Salinger’s novel about a depressed, angsty teenager who gets expelled from their boarding school is more than just a story about some whiny kid who can’t stop complaining about his life. If you have ever been (or are) an adolescent dealing with similar issues of trauma, grief, and the pain of growing up, you will find kinship in this less than perfect narrator. Aside from the 1950s slang which might throw some readers off, its sarcastic, colloquial style invites readers to reconsider the status quo. Earning its controversial reputation, the book does not shy away from dealing with the unpleasant, vulgar, and “phony” aspects of life in order to highlight the tragedy that is losing one’s innocence.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

5. 1984 by George Orwell

Length: 336 pages

Reading Time: 10 hours

This dystopian novel about a low-ranking man who secretly rebels against an omnipresent political power is an eerily relevant and timeless work about the corruption of a totalitarian government. It is no mistake that Orwell’s book is referenced time and time again as history inevitably repeats itself in the face of such corruption. Although the ideas might be quite large in scope, the writing style is clear, direct, and vivid. The reason being that Orwell himself deliberately advocated for plain, accessible language, because he believed that everyone deserved a chance to think critically without running the risk of being manipulated. It might be the longest story on the list, but do not worry—its conspiracy driven plot will (hopefully) keep you engaged.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.”

I invite you to use this list in whatever way suits you best. If you want to follow along my incremental progression, then go right ahead, that is why I ordered it the way that I did. If you are feeling called to a particular book, then begin with that one first. Lead with intrigue and excitement rather than forcing yourself to read it because you feel like you “should”. Not every book is going to resonate with you, and that’s okay. If you will have read even one of these classic novels by dedicating time away from that parasitic algorithm we must continually wrench ourselves free from, then I will have succeeded.

Reading is far more than just absorbing black ink on a page used to justify superior attitudes. It is an active resistance against mental decay, against snobbery, and against closed gates. You are more than capable of contributing to these ongoing cultural dialogues and bringing them into the future. They don’t have to die as the light from our devices flash across our faces and into our dopamine-addled minds. We can stop that in its tracks, a little at a time, at our own pace, and for our own enjoyment so that we may enrich our lives.

---

If you would like to support a passionate writer and literature student, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for extended Project Vampire Western updates, exclusive reflections on writing and creativity, and access to older stories, deleted scenes, teenage writing, and other forgotten relics.

Or, if you prefer, you can buy me a coffee. Just think of it as tossing a coin to your word witch. Either way, your readership is more than enough.

---

If you enjoyed this essay, check out some of my other ones:

A Literary Origin Story