/lit/ - Literature

>>11239101
because net happiness is much lower in the west now than it was 60 years ago and we are acutely aware we’re all going to die grisly deaths from genetic diseases and climate change

we're mostly sadists hence we prefer inferno to paradiso

>>11239101
>>11239112
Exactly the opposite. People in the West live infantile, coddled lives amid obscene material plenitude. Their souls are crying out for challenge, danger and hardship.

>>11239130
I just meant that people in the West are more depressed and anxious now than their parents and grandparents were, i don’t think working more than they already do or fighting in nuclear wars is going to make them mentally healthier judeo-protestant task master anon

>>11239101

>>11239149

For sure there are plenty of things to cause stress but they're all the wrong kind of things - nothing that can be faced and conquered with vigorous mental or physical activity.

>>11239101
More experience

>>11239101
You write about what you know.

>>11239112
Lmao what alarmist fucking garbage.

>>11239239

>>11239101
The "base state" of the human mind is closer to sadness. "Happyness" usually need some extra input like food, or sex, or shitposts. Also focusing on the negative is another thing we do naturally better than seeing positives.

because your happiness is artificial and can only be expressed as such

>>11239264
it's ok anon

>>11239266

Naaa, many people are naturally happy. But people who write, and people writing, will often be sadder, because it's sedentary and reflective. It's observing life and pondering it rather than living it.
There's a reason the word "pensive" has the etymology and meaning it does.

>>11239277

Those pictures are so good. It was some Finnish anon or something drew them all wasn't it?

>>11239283
>many people are naturally happy.
That's just not how brains work. Feeling "happy" needs to be triggered first, sure some people can trigger it easier but that's not the same.

>It's observing life and pondering it rather than living it.
Which can help with understanding it a bit better and hence dealing with it a bit better and hence enjoying it a bit more. The relation with sadness prolly comes into it sooner, people who experienced more of it, are more likely to be driven to become a writer and all that.

>>11239308

Depends what you mean by "naturally". Simple physical activity can make one happy, so if one is naturally active, one could be called "naturally happy".

"Trying to understand life and deal with it a bit better so you can enjoy it a bit more" is the quintessential sentiment of someone who isn't what I would call "naturally happy". It's virgin/chad all over again.
Or, if you prefer, some people are natural Eeyores, and some are natural Tiggers. Eeyore is going to be the writer.

>>11239336

Philip Larkin covered all this, by the way, in a little poem called "Send No Money Now", which I recommend.

>>11239336
But who is "naturally active"? Given the opportunity most kids enjoy some kind of physical exercise and if they did it often enough, they will enjoy it down the road as adults. Our brains are obsessed by habits.

I'd wouldn't be so fast pulling nature into it, these are all learned skills, certain experiences will push people more towards one or the other side, but hence also the switch back is perfectly doable.

>>11239101
happy stuff is not worth writing about. desire, love,vengance, yes but silly "happy" sutff is for pseuds

>>11239385

I'm beginning to suspect you're some sort of blank slate lunatic.

Nature: Nurture 90:10

>>11239690

We were all 13 once.

>>11239703
That's like ... a pretty blank statement, without any existing data to support it either.

>>11239101
you need some kind of conflict, tension, desire alienation etc. I mean its integral to the most basic plot, even if you have an happy end or sth you need some kind of conflict or w/e before that - that just how stories work
read Lukacs 'theory of the novel' he basically argues that the whole form of the novel, at its most basic level is about the 'problematic individual' and its journey

>be unironically happy and content person
>can only ever write down sad, depressing, pessimistic thoughts

why

>>11240320
catharsis

People who feel compelled to write are usually sad. There was a thread that really highlighted this a few months ago, we struggled to find a single "great author" who was also a well-adjusted human being.

writing, and reading, is an inherently pathetic and sad activity

>>11242506

SAD: Reading
SADDER: Writing
SADDER STILL: Posting
SADDEST OF ALL: Posting about writing and reading

>>11239101
It's easier to find sadness than to find happiness.