/lit/ - Literature

Fiction and life are one and the same. The meaning of life is literally right there, spelled out in the mechanisms of literature. Conflict compels us to read. And it's also secretly the single driving force of the human experience. The fight for reproduction, the fight for survival, the fight for "success" (regardless of what that means for the individual). The most fulfilling possible life is one where you have created a healthy stream of conflict for yourself, reasons notwithstanding. The climb is all that matters. Too much stress and will you will become soul-crushed, overworked; too little stress and you will decay and become complacent. Ideology is a giant meme, it's the biggest smokescreen of all time, it's a cope. You can choose what's meaningful to you and what your goals are, all that matters is that there's always one more challenge to solve, and that the challenges you are solving provide pleasure and a subjective sense of fulfillment to you. If you look at the bottom of every single worldview, every political opinion, philosophical argument, etc., you will find the exact same mechanisms that go into fiction: a goal, conflict, and antagonistic forces preventing you from reaching that goal. Because fiction is a reflection of our mortal experience, and these are the things that our brains are built to latch onto. This is the answer to the grand puzzle, and it's been under your noses all along.