/lit/ - Literature

*The absurdities of life.

Captcha:

Universally reecss

write about them

I have a stress ball that I squeeze.

>>2355229
may I also add, copious amounts of wine

I do not deal with anything much, but since I have to, what I deal with is with the fear everything provokes me. Everything scares me, and I don't think I will ever be pass that, thinking of things as absurd, ridiculous or whatever else is out of the question, everything is scary, that's the only word that will forver define the things in life for me.

Knowing I can take my own life at any time helps me greatly.

Realize that life isn't actually absurd. It just is.

>>2355227
Embrass them. Be as absurd as life itself.
It doesn't matter what others think, in fact, some even love eccentric hipsters.

>>2355240
embrace*

>>2355236

playing a game with no 'save' option is the most exhilarating.

reading book helps

How? I make life deal with MY absurdities.

>>2355246
It had to be "Soviet Russia"

>>2355240

lol

I struggle. Sometimes I'm absurd myself, sometimes I get depressed, at other times the absurdities feed my head, I read, I write, I exercise, I take drugs, I give up, I start, I have suicidal thoughts, then I'm energetic and impose myself onto it, I have fears, I have hopes and things keep happening. I don't think there is a way in which I deal with it, exactly, but I'm most certain that this roller coaster ride will continue and so the dealing with it is happening all the time.

>>2355252
was an absurd image at hand

I look around and it feels like 90% of the human race don't even fully comprehend how worthless it all really is.

I try to accept that life has never been anything other than absurd so my mourning for reason and order is uncalled for. But I don't always mourn, often I am gloriously absurd myself.

And other times I'm the shrugging cynic who just gets on with things. There's no absurdity for Diogenes, just things to eat and asses to sniff.

>>2355264
Or maybe "worthlessness" doesn't bother the other 90%.

I focus on goals that I set for myself, even if they are ultimately arbitrary

>>2355275
I agree.
Fuck miserable people who think everyone should be miserable.

>>2355275

They are blissfully unaware. You can see it in their eyes.

I somewhat resent that.

I have developed this strange psychosis in which i feel as though i'm experiencing and communicating with random people i know telepathically.

>>2355282

There are also people who've gotten across the reef and into the open sea. They've been through the whole nihilistic/absurdistic crisis, and don't seem to differ much from the regular folk. Secretly however, they're suspended in nothingness and learned to float, whereas the common folk remained on firm ground.

Those are the people you should seek out to be less miserable.

>>2355280

> implying I'm miserable.

I rage. Stay at home dad, so I read a lot of financial and political news and blogs. Then I go to the supermarket where everyone is being a total dick.

In general I want to strangle half of the world. In the meantime i read old histories about times that were REALLY shitty.

>>2355282
Sometimes acceptance and not having a death grip on life can seem "unaware".

But I know what you mean, too. Anyway, write about it. Or art about it somehow.

I've learned to deal with them, laugh at them, or even enjoy them.
If that doesn't work, I usually listen to music or read.

I actually enjoy how absurd it is. Sometimes it's so fucking ridiculous....all you can do in the face of such absurdity is to absurd yourself.

Please put that quote in my book of quotes, "Quotey Quotations for Quoters"

I post on /lit/.

I drink in excess, dream for the future, and tell myself I am superior to others.

Works pretty well usually.

i do things to drive the thoughts out of my head, personally. Watch a movie, lift weights, go running, they're all incredibly helpful. Remind myself I'm still here in a physical sense helps more than it seems like it should.

I teeter between being super healthy and self-destructive though. Either way feels right but it's refreshing the options they offer.

it onlyh elps temporarily though. then i get on 4chan.

thanks for existing, everybody.

>>2355264
>>2355280

I absolutely know what you mean. it's strange to think about, either way.

>>2355291
I need people like this. fuck. how is this even possible? everyone seems either blissfully unaware or (rarely) ust as lost in other ways.

"Social networking" hasn't helped. Being able to view your average moron's mentality has been horrifying for me.

pic related for a more practical approach.
granted, dude killed himself...

Escapism.

>>2355313
> I need people like this. fuck. how is this even possible? everyone seems either blissfully unaware or (rarely) ust as lost in other ways.

Choose a fath, join a Religion.

>>2355334
They're probably the most unaware.

>>2355336

But you can still feed of their general positivity. Granted it may be delusional, but it helps.

Become a emotional parasite or something.

>>2355313
>how is this even possible? everyone seems either blissfully unaware or (rarely) ust as lost in other ways.

It becomes sort of a habit after trashing around in despair for long enough. Eventually you become accustomed to the absurdity or nothingness and accept it as just another fact of life. Or to phrase it more precise, the problem itself fades away as you realize that bothering with the absurdity of the absurd is, well, absurd. As the questions recede into the nothingness they came from, existence is seen again as it always has been. Just what it is, nothing more, nothing less.

To illustrate this with the help from some of our dead zen friends:

>Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.

Or to put it more instructively:

>A monk asked Zhaozhou to teach him.
>Zhaozhou asked, "Have you eaten your meal?"
>The monk replied, "Yes, I have."
>"Then go wash your bowl", said Zhaozhou.
>At that moment, the monk was enlightened.

Or to put it most simply:

>Do not search for the truth, only cease to cherish opinions

>>2355334
i envy them but i know i could never commit in actuality. It's one thing to play the part but willingly forget everything I know?

not sure I can.

I enjoy going to church but i don't feel apart. The sermons are excellent to listen to (depending on the preacher) but they never fulfill me. I like the church though.

>>2355340
you remind my how much eastern literature puts my mind at ease. thanks for the thought provoking post.

i'll probably go off to read my Tao te Ching some tonight to relax me.

I chain smoke and usually crawl into the fetal position and dream of the sweet release of death.

>>2355347
You're most welcome.

>>2355340

Great post.

>the absurdities of life
I don't think I've ever encountered them.

>>2355293
>Stay at home dad
I can't fathom the infinite regrets you must have. lol

haha, that faggot deleted his post.

what a baboon.

I remind liberals how much i hate them.

and how i will murder them when the revolution comes

>>2355386
>liberals
http://www.ridingthetiger.org/2012/01/26/british-gender-neutral-baby-revealed/

In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that's all.

>>2355239
"It just is" doesn't explain why it's not absurd.

>>2355401
Or just cease being doubtful like a stray dog or a rock or something

>>2355282
it's not ignorance that makes them content. it's that they actually think there is purpose. They think they have power. They think they are free.

Nearly everyone ITT shows the arrogance of the human race.

>>2355407
a dog is in the same situation. he just doesn't /can't vocalise it

>>2355313
This is the reason why I go on /lit/ thanks for the great post

Also, open thread and Elliot Smith turns on, well fuck man.

>>2355424
this post is sarcastic.

>>2355425
Actuall quoted the wrong post
>>2355340

>>2355405
Not that guy, but seems to convey that any judgement you make about the nature of existence is quite superfluous. Since we are part of it we can't judge it as a whole as one would do from outside. If you say that existence is absurd, that would be of just as much value as saying that it is warm. Saying that existence is warm is nonsense, since warm is one of a set of polarities that we use to describe matters within existence. In the same way, absurd is a term that is used to describe the opposite of the reasonable/rational/logical. It is meant as a practical form of discrimination between phenomena.

So I'm afraid that labeling life as absurd is quite absurd. Which is a reasonable statement, since the labeling of life as absurd is something that takes place within existence and as such can be commented upon.

>>2355429
sure thing buddy but there's one fatal flaw ignored by your coverup,
>Also, open thread and Elliot Smith turns on, well fuck man.

>>2355433
Absurdity isn't a judgement of existence isn't more a meta-judgement (a judgement on the judgement on existence). The fact that you can say that this is still a judgement on judgements of existence is still a judgement on existence because judgement exists just emphasises the absurdity!

>>2355420
Doubt is a position in which one doesn't quite know which judgement to make, in this case about the nature of existence. Would you say that a dog is familiar with this doubt? Would he, if he gained access to communication via human language, finally shout out after his long period of silence: "WHAT ON EARTH IS IT ALL ABOUT? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY BLOODY SENSE!"

Would he, now?

Would he?

>>2355444
yes if a dog had the sapience to utilise language, he would probably ask these questions. it's the intelligence of our species that means we doubt. Why wouldn't it be the case for dogs given that they were intelligent like us?

>>2355443
Some scientist might say that once upon a time there where some monkeys who's brain developed to solve all kinds of problems in a more efficient way than other animals, for example how to catch a deer or defend themselves or procreate.

Then they proceeded to torture themselves by utilizing this device for acquiring food and security and sexual intercourse for things far more complex than those problems, and were in a way trying to drink up the ocean through a straw.

>>2355454
If monkeys evolved into humans, how come monkeys still exist?

checkmate atheists

>>2355454
I tend to think the the whole issue around god, religion and existentialism and absurdism has the same thing at it's heart: why are we sapient? why are we actually able to comprehend it all? why is the world comprehendible? some think it was because we were designed to. some think it's an accident. and others think you can't answer the question except tautologically which isn't an answer (that being whats absurd)

it's either : we can understand the world because we are the most favourable outcome in order to do understand it. this would suggest purpose.

or

we can understand the world because it's the only way we can understand the world. this is tautological.

I don't.

This is the most insightful response

>>2355489

You believe in god, right?

>>2355392

what a nasty hate filled website.

This thread is balls. Burn this thread to the ground.

>>2355542
Indeed

I laugh.

>how do you deal with it?

With a perpetual sense of irony, and a ritualistic compulsion to crow over the misery of others.

Everyone in this thread: are you me?

I just watch this erryday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APOk7phgafE

Aubsurdity is a symptom of reason. Why should I have to deal with it?

Kick it in the face, stuff it in my closet, and refuse to feed it until it promises to never come back.

>>2355227
>How do you deal with he absurdities of life, /lit/?
You know what it is, OP? I just don’t think about it.

Absurdities in life don't exist outside of fiction. Sadly life isn't an inspirational one liner

I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.

The best way to deal with nihilism and the absurd is to read a lot. That's really it. You need to have a large repertoire of fiction, existentialism, essays, ethics, etc., in your head, filed away to be called up for speculation or reassurance.

It helps to be able to call up that one Camus quote that always seems to reassure you, or remember that one philosopher's take on things, and how he seems so much more optimistic about things than you. Or to be able to project possible futures for yourself without limiting your perspective with pessimism; I think science fiction is really important for this.

Whenever I have an occasional nihilist "descent", or derealization, I remember this essay by Camus for example:
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/rtwrgsd.htm

And whenever I try to think about my future in a universe without meaning, there are about 350,000 Nietzsche quotes that will put ubermensch hair on your chest, and reading shit like The Last and First Men helps me conceputalize possible futures and civilizations that aren't very much like our own.

>>2355969

Second half is true, first half definitely is.

>>2356832
I rather think it should be 'absurdities don't exist outside of human thought'. There can be plenty of absurdity outside of fiction, all that is needed is for someone to judge some sort of act or situation as seemingly totally irrational.

>>2355498
That would be 'dealing with it'

>>2356830
>The best way to deal with nihilism and the absurd is to read a lot.

That just makes it worse.

Worst advice evar.

I internalize it and go insane.

Language is trolling.

Without language, there would be no way to lie, no way to troll.

We have failed. Liars have one. Life sucks.

>>2356931
> We have failed. Liars have one
> Liars have one
> one

>>2356936
that gif made me lol. 5k nukes dropped on israel

I subconsciously push it from my mind by drinking copiously and putting all of my energy into what I'm doing and plan on doing.

Thinking about it bums me out, and rarely if ever do I have the opportunity to discuss the subject at length, so I'd rather have it out of mind.

>>2356930
This.
But seriously I just laugh until it makes sense.

I try to live compassionately and laugh at the absurdities, sometimes embracing them within myself. I feel I've learned to roll with the current; you can't fight the waves but you can ride them through (to borrow >>2355291's analogy).

>>2356936

This game looks awesome. What is it?

>>2357091
>>2357091

anyone?

Life in general is crappy and all you can do is roll with the punches and refuse to get mad.

>>2357313
Shadow President

I don't worry about it, too much. Maybe one day I'll get hit by a car or something, then it won't have mattered anything about the absurdities. I just continue my life in indifference towards most things.

>>2356830
>>2356830
A few years ago I started having those nihilistic descents, as you call them. I just let them happen and now it's my constant life. It's not depressing or anything, it just is. Sometimes I get really angry at everybody in the world. Sometimes I feel especially misanthropic. Occasionally I think about suicide, not because I'm sad, but just because I'm tired of living, and death seems like an adventure. I'm pretty sure I'm slowly going insane, also. And on top of all of that, I've got that good ole' schizoid personality disorder.

imagine Sisyphus as a happy man

>>2357631
Jesus christ, is this the figure of the week in /lit/?

Seriously, he's come up like....at least 5 times in the last 3 days.

>>2357627
>>2357627
>>2357627

>that feel

i smoke a cigarette...


usually brings me back to earth.
or it really makes it worse and i start to lose my grip.

keeps things interesting i suppose

No such thing as nothingness. Anyone who has read Schopenhauer or Nietzsche can actually attest to that since that's what they are all about.

>>2356830
i really enjoyed reading this except from Camus's essay.

just wanted to say thanks, anon.

>>2357633
Do you not expect Sisyphus to come up when absurdity is mentioned? If so, you have undue expectations.