/lit/ - Literature

/lit/ do you retain as much information in an attempt to read fast. Not like because you have a paper due tomorrow but if you're trying to qualify for speed reading

Every action you've witnessed had an impact on your life, the act of experiencing now imbued into your life. This is where I have trouble, if you put negative into people it is embedded into their mind, as well as positive but at times positive comes off as unreal. When I write I try to be positive but at times I can be negative, although I feel the world is lacking positive works; not the shitty self help but to know that life is worth meaning although we feel that is not the case in certain situations. I'm having trouble discerning which is the truth, positive or negative but what is true is subjective.Tl;Dr should I have ecstatic and over the top optimistic tone or somber and melancholy or a bit of both, the problem is I do not want to have pessimism as it affects people so themselves will feel down but occasionally it is the truth and in order to have readers they have to relate and too much positivism feels campy and unreal

Paradise Lost

a few years ago during my schooling, I read two short stories that I remember enjoying, but I forget their names. I was hoping that someone here might be able to help me because you guys are well read.

The first book is a latin american story about a guy in a field who starts dying(I think he has a heart attack or something) and the emphasis of the story was not on his death, but on the world continuing everything as if everything were normal even in his last moments on earth.

the second story was from a very long time ago in elementary school so I'm not sure if it was just that it was a short story or if it was just an excerpt from the story. Since it was from a long time ago, I might misremember some of it, but the gist of it was that two men are meeting up in a diner(or some eatery) after a long time of not seeing each other. In the end, it turns out that the first man was a cop and the second man was a well known criminal. The first friend didn't want to make the arrest himself so he sent one of his fellow cops to impersonate him and make the arrest. Then the second friend receives a note from the first friend that he couldn't make it because he didn't want to make the arrest himself or something to that effect.

I really hope that someone can help me with finding these stories because they seem really obscure and I don't think googling it will help me.

pic somewhat related because it reminds me of the second story.