/lit/ - Literature

>>16514159
here's your (you)

>what function does this shelf broadening obsession have towards society?
imagine being a cuck to society lmao. i'm sure your iq is very high

>>16514204
Society gave you those books, Anon.
It's not all TAKE, you need GIVE as well.

You are planning to contribute to society, using the knowledge you gleaned, right? My concern is that you are loading too much of the chaff, and not enough of anything pertinent or useful. Have you tried reading more Mathematics books?

https://voca.ro/15LxuMDJ9Que

>>16514218
>Have you tried reading more Mathematics books?
Yes, I'm in fact a software engineer, that's my "contribution". I view arts and philosophy as ends to themselves, and my career as a means to that end. Now stop being a whining pleb and start with the Greeks.

>>16514250
Why would I start with the Greeks when I have two thousand years of progress to choose from?

We moved on from those dark ages. Our society has iterated past those savage years. Why do you choose barbarianism over progress?

>>16514365
>>16514159
what an utter, complete and disastrous midwit
point and laugh, /lit/

>>16514218
NPC and bluepilled

>>16514159
>the type that would probably write the books you would read
are you trying to become a meme
because that's how you become a meme

>>16514218
I owe nothing to society. I never asked for it, and I never signed a social contract.

>>16514659
Then leave.
>>16514415
See pic related
>>16514430
Nice short answer, faggot. Sounds like you're the bluepilled one.

>>16514218
>It's not all TAKE, you need GIVE as well.

>>16514746
>scores on online quizzes establish wit or brow
If /lit/ trades names like pokemon cards, you evaluate your mind like a COD prestige level. Fucking embarrassing.

So that I can resurrect Hegel and bring about the age of Dunkelheit

>>16514218
I have this hobby because I want to further this knowledge to my children. Nothing more to it, other than personal gain. That is how I will “contribute” to society.

>>16514159
modern society is gay why would i care if i give towards it or not

>>16514159
>Do you even have and endgame?
No
>What could you possibly be doing with such a broad net of knowledge, pulled from the ranks of obscurity, and thus mediocrity?
Absolutely nothing
>What are you planning?
Having a cozy and nice time reading Homer while drinking a cup of tea

>>16514159
>I see you nerds trading authors names like pokemon cards. As if it's some kind of street cred to have read a book by some unpronounceable foreign name. Did you not get bullied enough in school?
I find it hard to believe that a highly intelligent person would have such a bad take. It's like you've grossly misread the room or something.

>>16514218
>Society gave you those books
Complete and utter forehead-slapping, nose-leaking, chin-dribbling retard.
Aside from the very few works which are truly collaborative, books are almost exclusively the product of an individual, a singular mind and hand. Great works, like history, are created by great men. And yet here you are suggesting not only that they are a social enterprise, but that we are indebted to the community at large for the tenuous and ephemeral influence it may or may not have had on its literature. We don't owe you anything, least of all in our leisure time, you total sociopath.

>>16514746
Nice base stats, but no special moves.

>>16514972
>books are almost exclusively the product of an individual

He says having ordered a next-day delivery from Amazon- a book written by a man who didn't have to farm his own food or build his own shelter and had the safety to author hundreds of pages that were accumulated from the knowledge of thousands of scholars before him using a mutually agreed language between the collections of people, all that delivered to your door where you presumably have the time and safety to read it and shitpost on 4chan about it which, again, has a similar hierarchal dependence on the civilisation that could yield such technology.

Why yes, tell me more about how civilisation owes you nothing.

>>16514917
Waste of oxygen. Die quickly, please.

>>16514831
Leave.

>>16514811
What knowledge is this? The philosophical ruminations of midwits?

>>16514159
I just leak to read ma'am.

>>16515027
no society is gay i support blm burning your ugly ass alive

>>16514159
Imagine being such a cheap cynic you don’t instantly see the value in helping All the Sad Young Men surround themselves with calm, beautiful things.

>>16515027
Cringe holism.
And you've completely missed my point, which was in response to your ridiculous comment that "society gave you those books." I guess when you read "product" all you could manage was some tangential economic trite on books-as-commodities. Again, the works themselves are, almost exclusively, a singular enterprise. It makes no difference whatsoever what your courier's name is, or the company he works for; it doesn't matter what food they ate or where it came from; and it doesn't depend on the market value of my house. The book is a work within its own right. The only people that you "owe" are the retailer (and, by proxy, the rights holders) who charge a nominal fee which is cleared at the point of purchase. "Society" didn't write that book, you dipshit. What a stupid thing to say.

>>16515290
>I made a montage and I won't give credit to my sources

>>16515027
a bunch of individuals built what you perceive as civilization/society, not the other way around. its the bunch of cogs in the machine whom should be thankful some men decided to raise mankind above the common animals. if your fragile society falls, guess what will allow mankind to get up on its feet? gtfo /lit/ you commie tranny

>>16515397
The purveyors of society demand the detractors must go.

>>16514159
>obscure means mediocre
Shit bait. Do you do anything at a high level? If you did you'd know how important it is to exposure your mind to new material inside or outside your field to help imagine new branches to climb to.

>>16515330
Quintessential midwit

>>16515470
Face it, every word you speak was honed by your forefathers. Every idea you have, provided by our common interpretation. All literary paths trekked by founders, used by all.

You are one centuries' crop from the tree of nations. Hark to your predecessors' winning rote, and honour them by sworn duty. Else your malignant growth will be excised by your betters.

>>16514159
>obscurity, and thus mediocrity
>high IQ
pick one

>>16514218
this midwit thinks mathematics is anything else than another language, only useful when applied to learning stuff one needs

randomly learning mathematics is like randomly learning Russian, a pure waste of time

>>16515519
Words mean nothing if our brains couldn't perceive the primordial meaning from which any speech derives itself from. We owe nothing to no one but our Creator.

>"Smart"
>Doesn't read
Fuck STEMlords

>>16515581
primordial logic*

>>16514777
checked

>>16515581
Your "creator" is nothing but the breeding habits of previous generations. Be grateful to your slag lineage that they got wet for big brains.

>>16514620
fuck off autist

>>16514159
>High IQ Anon here, the type that would probably write the books you would read.
Considering this attitude, no.

>My question is this: what function does this shelf broadening obsession have towards society?
You have multiple questions below too.

>Don't get me wrong, I like books, but I see you nerds trading authors names like pokemon cards. As if it's some kind of street cred to have read a book by some unpronounceable foreign name.
Bait

>Did you not get bullied enough in school? Do you even have an endgame? What could you possibly be doing with such a broad net of knowledge, pulled from the ranks of obscurity, and thus mediocrity? What are you planning?
Worse bait

>>16516624
There are at least two anons that post here with 160+ iq, and I'm one of them, and iq is an overrated stat.

>>16514159
Lol, either you are
A: a complete fucking retard who asks the same kinda ask something so broad as to fain intelligence. Litterally we get a thread like this one every week from some imagrant from somewhere else who thinks begging the question is some kind of 200 iq move.
or B: a really good troll.

>>16514972
>people aren't almost entirely shaped by the society they live in
Brainlet take

>>16514221
Based

>>16514159
i like reading books

>>16517386
Brainlet inference.
That we are predominantly shaped by our culture is entirely besides the point that I was making, and not at all what I was addressing, which is this:

OP:
1) uncharitably assumes that /lit/ reads out of an obsessive pretension to impress people
2) asserts that the broad net of knowledge gained is pulled from a pool of mediocrity, and thus is conducive of mediocrity
3) asks what utility said obsession serves to society, assuming it serves little to none
4) doubles down and insists that "society gave you those books"
5) therefore, you are obliged to "GIVE" back for having taken
6) insists that, owing to economic interconnectedness, the work of an individual author warrants credit to the broad societal source from which it comes

>>16514250 put it best: arts and philosophy are ends to themselves, and career is a means to that end. Now stop being a whining pleb
We don''t have an obligation to ensure that our leisure time is spent on vocational pursuits. Of course, you could argue that we have a moral impetus or compulsion to do so, but to talk about it in terms of a real debt owed is ridiculous. And OP desperately undervalues the breadth of knowledge that might be gained, and the pleasure that might be had, by reading "obscure" authors with "unpronounceable foreign names" like Plato, Aristotle, etc. and history, philosophy, and the arts more generally. We don't "owe" society anything because Juan cut the tree that Ang made to paper which Stephan bleached and Janette pressed and blah blah blah... before postman Jonny what's-his-name ultimately put the book through the letter box.

There is also a great deal of irony and hubris in someone lecturing /lit/ on the broad indebtedness we have to society for our books (specifying cultural heritage, and language) when he dismisses the Greeks >>16514365 outright in favour of any other more current works in the last 2 millennia.

Like I said, cringe holism and quintessential midwit.

>>16514159
This is an 18+ board. Go finish your homework quick, before momma finds out where you've been.

>>16517648
Amazing; the amount of waffle to say so little. The epitome of booknerds.