/lit/ - Literature

Brave New World basically solves humanity's problems except for a few artificial plot devices.

>>10577042
Yeah, I thought of that, but they have all manner of non-Last Man type stuff in their society. It is just that everything outside that is much "worse". Though, it's been like 30 years(!?) since I read that and I may be remembering things.

>>10577056
>but they have all manner of non-Last Man type stuff in their society.
Such as?

It always sounded like an uncharitable description of Epicureans to me desu.

That and comfyposters

>>10577133

There's a few in my diary, desu

Oblomov

>>10577136
I thought I was a Nietzschean but now I have other thoughts
>frequent listener of dreamy music
>hater of politics
>the definition of disengaged
>loves sweaters
>likes cats

>>10577136
Why aren't there any good books on how the internet has changed communication identity and aspiration? Do we have to wait ten years

>>10577136
>I'm obviously exaggerating things
No he's not

>>10577136
I refuse to disengage

>>10577136
>Passion is a farce

Unless we're talking about gay marriage

>>10577023
dont you mean the soy man?

>>10577136
While there's some truth to what he's saying, I think that the greater portion of the whole postmodernism / new sincerity ordeal is irrelevant to society.

I consider myself a social outcast. I was never rejected by anyone outright, I was just raised in a house where the values were not strongly established, my parents' beliefs were in constant conflict (one a Protestant, the other an atheist) and the family was overall very antisocial, so I received little social conditioning or incentive to socialize. Instead, I was motivated to be myself, i.e. be unique, and be rebellious. But that alone is rather worthless, especially when no disciplinary regime is associated with it to reinforce it in you. So I grew up directionless. Now, I consider myself barely functioning, I hang onto the world by a thread and I definitely do not consider myself part of any zeitgeist in contemporary society, cultural or sub-cultural.

So I'm no stranger to the effects that postmodernism / new sincerity discuss. But at the same time, I also consider most people to not be directionless like myself. I consider myself a rare case, among the lower 10% of society. Most people still live by a moral code. They still follow traditions. Computer technology and the internet have not disrupted that flow, they have created new traditions. There are strong traditions already established in tech fields with clear cultural identities and clear hierarchical structures throughout them. You wouldn't have companies like Amazon growing in size like they are otherwise, everything would be in disarray. But there is still a stable order to things. The issues of the postmodernists / new sincerity peeps is relatively irrelevant to the world overall. And I disagree in making a federal case and more importantly a philosophical discipline out of my own condition. It feels like I am corrupting things.

>>10577023
Imageboard anonymity is what the society of last men looks like.

>>10577637
>Imageboard anonymity is what the society of last men looks like.

things like memes and (actual use of) free speech are the opposite of the last man you dumb nigger

>>10577458
>lover of sweaters
Irrelevant

>hater of politics
That's where you've fallen off the trail

der Letzte Mensch is always a bad thing.
>>10577042
Wrong.

>>10577698
Tripcode identities are hated across all boards. Becoming something separate from the hive of anonymity that celebrates NEET culture is looked down on almost universally here. It's much closer to the last men than its opposite.

>>10577723
Using a tripcode doesn't make you any less of a Last Man
And I don't see NEET culture being revered here, maybe at r9k but not overall at all

>>10577730
>Using a tripcode doesn't make you any less of a Last Man
Hating anyone trying to maintain a consistent identity and take responsibility in their arguments makes you more of one, though. It means you actively seek self-annihilation, you only want to participate in things briefly and never to the extent where they become a personal matter to you. Look at all the self-denigration among the memes on this site too, it's a further indication of this. But maybe my idea of 4chan is outdated at this point, because these things were definitely more severe 5-10 years ago.

>>10577483
The whole "post-meta-turbo-xxx-irony" is already fading. As the userbase of the internet grows, so do its contents.

>>10577637
Have you read The Elementary Particles?

If not it's highly recommended.

>>10577136
Get out of my head

>>10577637
>>10577723
Honestly Reddit is more of a last man bastion, because the very structure there disincentives volatile arguments. People who say something that is not overly friendly or harmlessly sarcastic on a dull sitcom level (note that they actually have developed a mark for sarcasm ("/s") in their culture just to prevent people from being baited into a bit of anger) just get downvoted into invisibility. Being inoffensive is enforced to the extreme.

There's a reason why 'the left can't meme' is a meme. They are preoccupied with making things inoffensive to the degree that their products never really stick because they fail to induce a strong reaction.

>>10577533
kek

>>10577133
Not really. More the sucking up beta that allows people to treat him like a stool to avoid conflict.

>>10577023
>OP thinks Last Men is meant literally as a surviving remainder of a population
>mysides.jpg
>>10577698
>This fag thinks posting pictures of cartoons with words on them in an anonymous Mongolian basketweaving site allows one to rise itself up above the mob when truly he's the Underground Man
>plsstop.jpg

>>10578036
are you retarded?

>>10577903
I haven't, but based on the summary it sounds very interesting, I'll check it out. Thanks for the rec.

>>10577951
Reddit isn't left-wing. The actual left ought to be radical and offensive to every single standard of society.

>>10578036
the Underground Man is not a Last Man you tard. You'd know this if you'd ever actually read Notes.

>>10579577
He didn't say the Underground Man was a Last Man, he just said posting on 4chan from your mother's basement is Underground Man behavior
Which it literally is

>>10577951
on a semi related note Reddit would honestly be better if the karma system was eliminated.

The fact that they have to put a /s to indicate sarcasm to avoid backlash in the form of comments and downvotes (and in some cases to ride a circlejerk) is just proof that they just want the karma/ upvoting that comes with it. its not posting to post in alot of cases, theres an incentive attached to it.

>>10579562
kys delusional faggot

>>10577637
Glad I am not alone.

>>10579562
Well they're not Maoist revolutionaries but progressive liberals count as left of centre in most Western countries.

>>10577118
They have islands specially purposed for exiling higher functioning atypical people. They tolerate them, just at a distance.

>>10581058
>he believes in the islands

right, and your dog lives at a farm now

>>10581144
>he thinks the islands don't exist
they aren't savages, anon

>>10581033
Nope. Sorry bud, you're a liberal. Liberals are right wing.

>>10581209
The islands do exist, they're the subject of another one of Huxley's novels (or at least the concept is)

>>10581367
Those aren't the same universe, Island starts with a lad in a normal world with alcohol advertisements and such.

And the islands obviously aren't populated with BNW rejects.

>>10577023
The Morlocks and the Eloi

>>10577136
T-that's completely inaccurate. I only have one cat...

>>10577136
This is what urban people really think the world is. Sad.

>>10581964
Just because they drive a tractor between playing Xbox and watching porn doesn't make rural people any better, anon

there are tons of last man's on 4chan
I wonder why they aren't shitposted about more around the site

>>10583008
All people are last men these days except for maybe jihadists

>>10583525
heaven/paradise is actually the ultimate last men resort

>>10583525
>>10583546
Committing suicide for rewards in the afterlife is the opposite of life affirming

>>10583620
not if you believe the afterlife exists, since it is another kind of life but eternal

death is only the opposite of life affirming if you think death ends you, if you think death makes you live forever then it's the ultimate affirmation of being alive

>>10583546
Not if you immanentize the eschaton and literally build heaven on Earth or forge a paradise on Earth with everlasting life its not

>>10577698
>social comfort
>take no risks
>people who are unoriginal and boring
>no one that stands out

Sounds very last man to me

>>10581033
On the left side of the overton window, maybe

>>10583718
it definitely applies to reddit 10x that it does here though

>>10577023
>Are there any really good examples of the Last Man in literature other than this one obviously?
Obviously not since the concept is antithetical to good literary characterisation.

It's sad how all you casuals latch onto Nietzsche's eye-catching ideas only, and don't care for the rest of his work that gives those context (besides providing his deeper concepts).

It comes across as incredibly self-obsessed and pretentious whenever young people try to describe their own environment or century in canonical terms. The majority of what you describe can be written off as resulting from poor physiologies.