/lit/ - Literature

Has anyone else found that excessive internet usage has ruined their ability to read books efficiently?

My attention span is so fucked bros. I remember once upon a time being completely enthralled by books for hours on end. Time would simply melt away as I would be totally immersed in the pages in front of me. Now I struggle to read for 20 mins at a time without checking something on my phone or having to reread sections multiple times because I realised I wasn't actually paying attention. It's stupid because I read so much every day online, but a physical book just cannot hold my interest like it used to.

I've spent years "studying" poetry. I've read countless books about technicality, form, metre, prosody; I've read all major and lots of minor poets, ancient, medieval, renaissance, Victorian, modern, contemporary - all my life.
But I can't actually write anything. All I want to do is write poetry and yet I can't do anything. I can't put together any solid images, metaphors or narratives.
Am I doomed? Should I just give up?

>>19917899
You're falling for it...
He's beloved by all the leftist and luvvies, he's now the go-to "cast darkie actor in historical thing for woke points" guy

Reading a book isn't an achievement and it won't fill the void.

>take my falcon to the library to check out Infinite Jest (he wants to reread it)
>barely pass the pleb inspection and only pass the No Singles policy because of my falcon
>guy right in front of my gets pulled for a random girlfriend screening, breathe sigh of relief because I wouldn't have made it for sure
>walk through security, have to take off my belt and my shoes and my falcon gets stopped for a random screening
>finally make it to the fiction section after having to wait ten minutes for the monorail from the non-fiction section
>have to stop at the concession stand because my falcon is hungry
>order some popcorn for me and some crab legs for my falcon
>go up to cute librarian at the desk and ask "Hi ma'am, can you tell me where you keep your Wallace?"
>she turns to me and looks annoyed
>"David Foster?"
>"Yes ma'am"
>she blows a bubble with her gum and says "you'll have to pass the canon exam"
>go into back room
>have to sit for a 4 hour exam on the history western literature
>can barely recite pages from Finnegans Wake from memory
>falcon almost fails but is saved by The Greeks section (he studied in advance)
>librarian lady comes back and leads me to a large vault door
>have to do retina scans, fingerprints, and penis inspections before it's unlocked
>almost get a boner when she's fondling my penis to check for lumps
>finally get to see the tome I've been looking for
>go to check it out when the librarian says "wait, you've passed your virginity screening, right"
>start sweating, my falcon is nervously munching on his crab legs at this point
>"y-yes"
>she knows I'm lying
>they kick me out of the building and put me on 1 year surveillance to make sure I don't even think about going back to the library
>mfw

Alcohol doesn't make me euphoric anymore
books for this feel?

>>15439509
>tfw you will never save her by going back in time

The only thing that i want is to be alone, listen to music, get drunk and smoke
books for this feel

>>14854170
>decide to write a short story
>start writing, be in ecstaic flow
>write more and more
>feeling even better about my unmatched ability to pour words onto paper
>thinking im going to be a great writer redeeming contemporary literature from the abyss it was thrown in by post modernism
>look at word count:2000 words
>start counting pages
>only 3

>be me
>wake up
>drink double coffee with no sugar
>smoke a cigarette while browsing 4chin
>take a shit while browsing 4chin
>wash ass in bidet
>wash hands
>eat a sandwich
>smoke again
>start watching random youtube videos, while shit posting on 4chin
>eat another sandwich
>lift while listening to Liszt inferno
>smoke while contemplating all the ways how i fucked up my life and my eventual homeless future or sudoku
>remember about all of those people who make money on youtube, twitch, apps, e-books, scams
>too angry to die

>>14102325

>take my falcon to the library to check out Infinite Jest (he wants to reread it)
>barely pass the pleb inspection and only pass the No Singles policy because of my falcon
>guy right in front of my gets pulled for a random girlfriend screening, breathe sigh of relief because I wouldn't have made it for sure
>walk through security, have to take off my belt and my shoes and my falcon gets stopped for a random screening
>finally make it to the fiction section after having to wait ten minutes for the monorail from the non-fiction section
>have to stop at the concession stand because my falcon is hungry
>order some popcorn for me and some crab legs for my falcon
>go up to cute librarian at the desk and ask "Hi ma'am, can you tell me where you keep your Wallace?"
>she turns to me and looks annoyed
>"David Foster?"
>"Yes ma'am"
>she blows a bubble with her gum and says "you'll have to pass the canon exam"
>go into back room
>have to sit for a 4 hour exam on the history western literature
>can barely recite pages from Finnegans Wake from memory
>falcon almost fails but is saved by The Greeks section (he studied in advance)
>librarian lady comes back and leads me to a large vault door
>have to do retina scans, fingerprints, and penis inspections before it's unlocked
>almost get a boner when she's fondling my penis to check for lumps
>finally get to see the tome I've been looking for
>go to check it out when the librarian says "wait, you've passed your virginity screening, right"
>start sweating, my falcon is nervously munching on his crab legs at this point
>"y-yes"
>she knows I'm lying
>they kick me out of the building and put me on 1 year surveillance to make sure I don't even think about going back to the library
>mfw

>>13553558
You just KNOW she has done nothing in her whole damned life to earn even that single cup of coffee in front of her.

>spend years studying western philosophy
>finish my phd, thesis on the intersection of aristotle's de anima, plotinus enneads and heideggerian ontology, but still feel my knowledge is only fragmentary
>no idea what the point of anything is, all those wasted years and for what?
>i'd studied the greeks, especially aristotle and plotinus for years, learned to read them in their original language
>studied everything from aquinas to kierkegaard
>still feel like I know nothing
>start drinking heavily, major downward spiral
>wife divorces me, takes the kids and leaves me in major debt
>about to kill myself with a pistol my dad passed on to me after he died (also suicide, he jumped off a building)
>notice tao te ching on my bookshelf
>i'd never read it before
>put the gun down and start reading
>it feels like the ground is shaking under my feet
>this is it, THIS IS IT
>I get heavily into eastern philosophy
>quit my demanding academic job and work as a night guard at a high end apartment building where i can read all night
>veer mainly into hinduism
>learn sanskrit and read classic hindu spiritual texts
>decide im ready to commit full time
>quit my job, pack a few clothes and essentials and fly over to india
>spend a 6 months traveling up and down the country looking for a guru
>one day sitting by a dirt road drinking mango lassi, old man approaches me speaking in hindi (i had learned that too, im good with languages)
>he has this glow about him, most enlightened looking person you could ever imagine
>straight up asks if i want to be his student, i say yes with no hesitation
>study and practice with him (shaivist advait vedanta) for two years very intensively
>little by little my old doubts and preoccupations creep in
>halfway through third year i am having panic attacks every other week, none of this is working, none of it means anything
>run off to delhi and use what little money i have left on prostitutes and alcohol, cry myself to sleep every night
>sitting in an internet cafe one day and open up my old twitter account
>see friend comment "that is some profound shit, thank you o wise one" on some dude named jaden smith's post
>look up jaden smith's account and read through his posts in a wild delirium
>the most profound wisdom i have ever encountered laid out in pithy aphorisms posted by an american teenage celeb
>all that time wasted chasing after wisdom
>i could have just opened up twitter
>mfw

Is it possible to be both a writer and a musician?

Let your soul therefore turn always:
[...]
"Not to what is most easy, but to what is hardest;
"Not to what tastes best, but to what is most distasteful;
"Not to what most pleases, but to what disgusts;
"Not to matter of consolation, but to matter for desolation rather;
"Not to rest, but to labor;
"Not to desire the more, but the less;
"Not to aspire to what is highest and most precious, but to what is lowest and most contemptible;
"Not to will anything, but to will nothing;—
—
—"Not to seek the best in everything, but to seek the worst, so that you may enter for the love of Christ into a complete destitution, a perfect poverty of spirit, and an absolute renunciation of everything in this world.

—Saint John of the Cross

>spend years studying western philosophy
>finish my phd, thesis on the intersection of aristotle's de anima, plotinus enneads and heideggerian ontology, but still feel my knowledge is only fragmentary
>no idea what the point of anything is, all those wasted years and for what?
>i'd studied the greeks, especially aristotle and plotinus for years, learned to read them in their original language
>studied everything from aquinas to kierkegaard
>still feel like I know nothing
>start drinking heavily, major downward spiral
>wife divorces me, takes the kids and leaves me in major debt
>about to kill myself with a pistol my dad passed on to me after he died (also suicide, he jumped off a building)
>notice tao te ching on my bookshelf
>i'd never read it before
>put the gun down and start reading
>it feels like the ground is shaking under my feet
>this is it, THIS IS IT
>I get heavily into eastern philosophy
>quit my demanding academic job and work as a night guard at a high end apartment building where i can read all night
>veer mainly into hinduism
>learn sanskrit and read classic hindu spiritual texts
>decide im ready to commit full time
>quit my job, pack a few clothes and essentials and fly over to india
>spend a 6 months traveling up and down the country looking for a guru
>one day sitting by a dirt road drinking mango lassi, old man approaches me speaking in hindi (i had learned that too, im good with languages)
>he has this glow about him, most enlightened looking person you could ever imagine
>straight up asks if i want to be his student, i say yes with no hesitation
>study and practice with him (shaivist advait vedanta) for two years very intensively
>little by little my old doubts and preoccupations creep in
>halfway through third year i am having panic attacks every other week, none of this is working, none of it means anything
>run off to delhi and use what little money i have left on prostitutes and alcohol, cry myself to sleep every night
>sitting in an internet cafe one day and open up my old twitter account
>see friend comment "that is some profound shit, thank you o wise one" on some dude named jaden smith's post
>look up jaden smith's account and read through his posts in a wild delirium
>the most profound wisdom i have ever encountered laid out in pithy aphorisms posted by an american teenage celeb
>all that time wasted chasing after wisdom
>i could have just opened up twitter
>mfw

>>12992319
>based on your results you are literally wojak, congratulations

Los Angeles. No further comments.

fuck philosophy, just read novels and poetry. philosophy is a major mindfuck. im still recovering from my stint with philosophy. probably fucked me up for life

>spend years studying western philosophy
>finish my phd, thesis on the intersection of aristotle's de anima, plotinus enneads and heideggerian ontology, but still feel my knowledge is only fragmentary
>no idea what the point of anything is, all those wasted years and for what?
>i'd studied the greeks, especially aristotle and plotinus for years, learned to read them in their original language
>studied everything from aquinas to kierkegaard
>still feel like I know nothing
>start drinking heavily, major downward spiral
>wife divorces me, takes the kids and leaves me in major debt
>about to kill myself with a pistol my dad passed on to me after he died (also suicide, he jumped off a building)
>notice tao te ching on my bookshelf
>i'd never read it before
>put the gun down and start reading
>it feels like the ground is shaking under my feet
>this is it, THIS IS IT
>I get heavily into eastern philosophy
>quit my demanding academic job and work as a night guard at a high end apartment building where i can read all night
>veer mainly into hinduism
>learn sanskrit and read classic hindu spiritual texts
>decide im ready to commit full time
>quit my job, pack a few clothes and essentials and fly over to india
>spend a 6 months traveling up and down the country looking for a guru
>one day sitting by a dirt road drinking mango lassi, old man approaches me speaking in hindi (i had learned that too, im good with languages)
>he has this glow about him, most enlightened looking person you could ever imagine
>straight up asks if i want to be his student, i say yes with no hesitation
>study and practice with him (shaivist advait vedanta) for two years very intensively
>little by little my old doubts and preoccupations creep in
>halfway through third year i am having panic attacks every other week, none of this is working, none of it means anything
>run off to delhi and use what little money i have left on prostitutes and alcohol, cry myself to sleep every night
>sitting in an internet cafe one day and open up my old twitter account
>see friend comment "that is some profound shit, thank you o wise one" on some dude named jaden smith's post
>look up jaden smith's account and read through his posts in a wild delirium
>the most profound wisdom i have ever encountered laid out in pithy aphorisms posted by an american teenage celeb
>all that time wasted chasing after wisdom
>i could have just opened up twitter
>mfw

>>12937776
>my friends see my reading the gay science
>give me funny looks
>couple weeks later see me reading ecce HOMO
>they think im gay now
i wish i was joking

>>12898747
>ywn be such a chad that even relatives lust after your cock

>>12902025
fuck you for posting this, god damn it

>>12896318
Suffering makes us perfect. People who've never suffered and lived the most comfortable lives tend to be the worst people and themselves the most decadent.