/lit/ - Literature

>>22286555 (Nice trips)
It's amazing to me how people in rural areas are so untainted by the "cancers of modern society" that they can so easily find joy in life and works and days. This idea of the similarity between them and the old aristocracies is very interesting. Thank you. I'm not the anon you're replying to and have no definite answer to this question but people who live in rural places are of absolutely higher value than us cityslickers.

>The puer aeternus very often has this mature, detached attitude toward life, which is normal for old people but which he acquires prematurely—the idea that life is not everything, that the other side is valid too, that life is only part of the whole of existence. Here the death-temptation prevents the little prince from going right into the earth. Before he has even touched it the snake comes in and says, "If you don't like it, you know a way out." So before he has gone down to earth, he has already had the offer of death. I have met many people with a similar difficult constellation who do that: they live only "on condition," which means that secretly they constantly flirt with the idea of suicide.At every step of their lives they think they will try something or other and that if it does not work they will kill themselves. The puer aeternus always keeps his revolver in his pocket and constantly plays with the idea of getting out of life if things get too hard.The disadvantage of this is that he is never quite committed to the situation as a whole human being; there is a constant Jesuitical mental reservation: "I will go into this, but I reserve my right as a human being to kill myself if I can't stand it any more. I shall not go through the whole experience to the bitter end if it becomes too insufferable, for if it does I shall walk out of it." And therefore the person does not become whole. If one cuts off the wholeness of the experience, one cuts oneself into bits and remains split because transformation can only take place if one gives oneself completely to the situation

That's me, is there any way to solve this?

How do you read? I feel like I'm not getting as much as I should out of the books I read. Do you re-read books to better understand them? Do you take notes? Do you look for historical and philosophical context before/after you read the book?