/lit/ - Literature

>still having relatives

>still having a room

>grab headphones and turn on A Soft Murmur or Drone Zone
>get focused again

>>5199087
headphones/earplugs. Next time your at a pharmacy or the airport stock up on those small foam friends.

>>5199087
buy a pair of earplugs

>not intentionally deafening yourself

Why don't you forcefully enquire about why they feel the need to watch television and whether they believe that the reason that they are doing that and that they have nothing interesting to say to one another is because they're boring people who don't have any strong interest and/or hobbies. Then ask them if they believe that they never developed any interests or whether it is because television has eroded any sense of imagination they had destroying any potential to do so. After, approach them by investigating whether they believe that their lives would be truly worse if they unplugged the TV and did something more productive with their time.

or just get some ear-plugs and shup

>>5199087
this >>5199095
After a year or so on /lit/ you will become so sociopathic that all your relatives will be frozen in plastic bags in the basement

>reading
>family member starts talking to me
>I ask them to stop because I'm doing something
>DURR STOP BEING SUCH A MOANING OLD MAN CAN"T YOU MULTITASK

>>5199117
HUH?

>reading
>somebody asks me what I'm reading
>say nothing, show them the cover
>they get mad because I was "rude"
>says the person interrupting my reading

ITT: plebs and plebeian family life.

>>5199225
underrated

>>5199087
We all know that feel bro

>>5199095
Like this guy.
You're not living the literary lifestyle unless you've alienated all of your family to the point that they don't know where you live and won't even know when you've died.

>can't listen to anything other than instrumentals while reading
>vocals distract me

>"Hey, what are you reading?"
>"Oh, never heard of it."
>"Well, what are you listening to?"
>"You've got a strange taste. Never heard of that either."

98% of the time.

>recently moved into a flat with three housemates
>don't meet the fourth housemate but other two seem nice
>they said it's a quiet place, everyone keeps to themselves
>move in next to the fourth person's room
>tfw he works part-time and is always fucking there when I get back blasting 2009-tier dubstep
>ask others about it and they look at each other and say he has "problems"
>tfw I'm living next door to a bi-polar manchild who showers and makes dinner at like 3am with his music still playing

>>5199324
It's called telling him to turn his shit music down.

>>5199330
>bi-polar
Like he would listen to him anyway.

>>5199365
Depends on how intimidating you can be.

>>5199234
>reading at work
>grill co-worker passes
>asks me what I'm reading
>tell her
>YEAH WHATS THAT ABOUT
Ffffuck

>>5199087
I'm not even kidding

>>5199376
>"Do you feel in charge?"

>>5199392
You should be happy that it gives you the opportunity to perform you intellectual superiority. That's what /lit/ is about right?

>>5199425
>implying he knows what it's about and not using it as an accessory for idleness

I know that feel bro.
>reading in the TV room cause it's got a nice lamp that I like to read by
>mom goes into kitchen
>starts reading some stuff on her computer (probably school stuff, she was going back to college when I moved out)
>turns on the TV
>not even looking at it
>just background noise
>mfw
What irritates me even more about that is her ability to read in a situation I'd be incredibly distracted in, and I couldn't ask her to turn off the TV or else it would be "rude".

>>5199087
>relaxing in the living room in complete silence, completely calm
>the humans arrive
>suddenly the television is on and everyone is yammering their words

>>5199764
>Sitting in my den.
>Reading The Tale of Genji.
>Suddenly humans barge in.
>They release their cubs into my domicile.
>They begin touching my possessions and territory.
>They demand we switch on loud cartoons, and they start yammering in their incomprehensible language.
>Cannot continue the one pleasure I have in my literary life.

My dad and stepmom blare the tv while both looking at their laptops (or laptops AND cellphones). The only thing they seem to pay attention to is their idle bickering. Fuck, I don't wanna get old.

>>5199122
It's not their fault, everyone is boring. Even interesting people.

>owning a television

kill yourself

I often get yelled at when I go off to read by my wife for "abandoning" family time, which is invariably some form of reality TV. No o font lose this fight

I wear earmuffs around my house because the people in my family aren't self-aware enough to realize they're obnoxiously loud.

ITT: Bunch of fags who should have moved out 5 years ago.

>get hungry after being patrician for too long
>go into kitchen
>what's all this racket?
>there is a tv in the kitchen as well as a computer
>brother and brother's gf are both watching different shows on the tv and comp at competing volumes
>they're not even nine feet apart
>both reality tv shows
>my peaceful snack is ruined

I asked that girl if she ever read books once and she freely admitted that the only book she ever read IN HER ENTIRE LIFE was the Sweet Valley HighTM series.

IKTF about the tv tho my favourite place to read is in the living room and if anyone is blaring crap in the adjoining kitchen I have to go read in my squalid little lair which isn't as comfy.

>>5199234
sperglord detected

>>5199983
Iktf anon. My housemates will sit in our living room with their ipads and phones on full volume whilst watching TV its inane.

>>5199324
snitch to the cops, sounds like one of the neighbours did it. keep snitching until he stops/is kicked out.

>>5199087
>clean basement up
>have lazyboy under a nice lamp next to my turntable
>everything is clean and cozy
>perfect reading and drinking conditions
>brother ruins it by putting his computer in the basement instead of his room
>downstairs all hours he is awake and not at work
>he plays video games and watches anime constantly, without breaks
>asks me to leave when he wants to jack off and/or talk to his bf
fuck you sam, give someone else some time in that basement. you didnt even clean it up

>>5200141
>He asks you to leave when he wants to jack off.

I bet he's autistic and his "boyfriend" is someone he met on Gaia.

>>5200167
met on steam or something. is he autistic? more like a philistine with no common sense.

>>5200185
I'm pretty sure you have to be autistic or retarded to not have the social skills to realize asking someone to leave the room so you can jack off is wrong.

what are earplugs

>>5200223
beta as fuck

You's a squealin' like a bunch of butt-fucked Vassar bitches. Why not tell people to keep it the fuck down?

>>5200223
>implying i wouldnt use this shit just as an excuse to not pick up the phone

READ OUTSIDE YOU DEGENERATES

>>5199122
Exactly what this guy said but distill into a short, manageable sentence.

I suggest "Keep it down out there, I'm trying to read a book!" If they continue so be just a loud, follow not that long thereafter with the succinct but effective "Shut the fuck up!"

>>5199087
Who the fuck goes over to another person's house and turns on the tv?

>>5199132
I can't find any plastic bags big enough

>>5199410

kek

>>5202386
You drain your relatives into the bathtub and then chop them up, you idiot.

>high volume echoes throughout the house

lel, murricans

>>5200229
what? you stupid or something

>>5199117
>deafening
>not blinding
Do you even Greek?

I don't actually like *absolute* silence when I read. Of course, someone blaring a TV isn't conducive to a positive reading experience, but just something there in the background, some ambient noise, or even just a tv turned down real low gets me in a positive headspace to read. Silence is distracting, at least to me.

>reading
>hey, are you studying history?
>I am reading
>*prolonged eye fixation, which is about a second are few more, and no discernible emotion on any of the curious girls*
>some few days later
>hey, are you studying history?
>yeah

>weekend with family
>finally have a moment of peace to finally finish Gravity's Rainbow
>reading about the boat S&M orgy
>mom, aunt and cousin show up
>"Hey, what are you reading?"
>show them the cover and say the name
>"Oh, that's a weird name, is it about physics or something?"
>mind goes blank
>"it's...it's about rockets"
>mfw my whole family probably thinks I'm a autist who reads child level sci-fi

>>5199087
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALLLLLL!"

>>5202537
It's because you have now have ADD thanks to the internet

>reading the republic in room
>sister has friends over
>they come over and tell me to "stop being so anti-social"
>go out and chat with them
>have a few drinks
>spend the rest of the night smoking low quality weed with chad who's trying to tell me about the finer qualities of fucking naruto and waxing off about his terrible art till 4 in the morning

seriously, wtf

>>5202565
>not being man enough to say "l'm busy"

>>5202565

I MADE THAT IMAGE.

>>5202572
okay

>>5202589

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

>>5202590
i mean get a fucking life

>>5202618

HOW IS THAT YOU MEAN THAT VIA "OKAY"?

WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME TO "GET A 'FUCKING' LIFE"?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "GET A 'FUCKING' LIFE"?

>>5200421
>What is wind

>>5202621
work on your grammar troglodyte

>>5202635

WHAT DO YOU MEAN –HOW IS MY GRAMMAR NOT FLAWLESS?

>reading book in my room
>mother comes home and brings my 4 nephews with her because she has nothing else to do in this life
>crying, yelling, shouting constantly
>she's also trying to clean the house and vacuum-cleans obsessively
>sisters who are too lazy to be actual parents for these kids arrive later and add to the tumult

I'm moving in a week and boy am I looking forward to that.

>high schoolers
>people who haven't moved out yet

>>5202502
>lel, murricans
ikr
>be me
>house is mostly concrete
>no noise
feels good man

>get on bus
>put my headphones on and get a book out
>fat chick gets my attention
>she says something
>I take my headphones off
>What are you reading? Teehee
>I show her the book cover and put my headphones back on
She made a face at that. How the fuck is it my fault when you're interrupting me? Being in a public setting does not put me at anyone's disposal.

>be NEET
>sleep from 06:00 to 13:00
>have the deliciously quiet night all to myself

I don't know your problems.

>>5202647
Over 30mins in gimp

>>5202652
>english majors
>not living with their parents
pick one

>>5199087
>reading a book at family gathering
>cousin asks what i'm reading
>go on to explain in full detail the literary merit of the author and encourage her to read it
>"I just finished The Fault In Our Stars myself."
>mfw

>>5199324

I had a college room mate who did that same thing.

>>5202835
same here

>>5202951
Why all the hate for English majors recently?

>>5202557
This
Fucking this

>>5199392

>>5204168
>Not immersing yourself in music appropriate to the book

I make a playlist for every book I read and never reuse songs

Then one comes on shuffle sometime and I go "ahhhh... gravity's rainbow"

>>5203839
Because you shouldn't need a degree on how to read books.
Open.
Read.
COmpute.
Finish.
Tick off oneof those to read autism lists i see lit posting

>>5204178
>Read
>Finish book
>Go back to book for recite reasons
>Remember exactly where i was and what day i read the page at and what was going on around me

Feels weird

Its like im looking back in time from looking at pages ive read before

>>5204198
>I am a robot. All information is simple input and output.

English majors learn critical analysis and the finer points of the craft of writing. And I say this as someone who didn't major in English.

>>5199117
laughed out loud. Thanks /lit/

>>5199793
mfw /lit/ belivves this.
Rolling up wall vomiting

>>5204258
>he doesn't blasé into the weltspleen yet

do you even flanero?

>>5199872
I hope you're joking

>>5204217
Because it prevents the employer from hiring at lower than minimum wages and benefits, which equally prevents any other than regular wage-competition. Illegal workers can be employed in preference to legal workers, which places increasing strain on unemployment insurance and social programs.

Of course, as I have mentioned, the opposite case is possible. Illegal immigration might be impossible or difficult due to whatever factor, in which case a policy against legalization of immigration is preferable.

There a no absolutes in methods of struggle. Any a priori position for or against legal immigration would be senseless, and would be to throw out dialectics.

>>5204311
This seems like a favoritism of workers by nationality, rather than of workers in general.

>>5204317
The petty bourgeoisie is the the petty bourgeoisie. This is a technical term, not a negotiable common-place like 'middle class.' The fact that the middle class, as the term is today used, includes the more pampered elements of the proletariat does in no way alter the distribution of tax burden.

Further, the better paid proletarians tend to be better paid for the expenses or their education, commute and/or the rarity of their specialty. Their wages are subject to the vicissitudes of the 'law of wages,' not the whim of the tax system. This is a basic point of Marxist theory; wages can only be relatively decreased by taxes.

>>5204325
You've not substantiated your point at all. Consumption taxes are reappropriations of wages. Income taxes are too, they are not levied on the bourgeois.

The "social wage" is a redistribution of the wage from individual to general labour in order to ensure the reproduction of labour power in general: it does not derive from taxes on the bourgeois.

In fact, all taxes, as surplus value, are derived from the activity and exploitation of productive labour.

>>5204317
Different nations have a different place in the division of labor in the world market. Different conditions require specific policies to account for them. Are we to adopt an a priori position on immigration and abandon dialectics, as with Bernstein?

>>5204317

It makes them petty bourgeois -- literally, petty property holders.

>>5204336

Of course all taxes ultimately are paid by labor exploitation, but that rather misses the point. The taxes paid by the bourgeoisie have already been appropriated, they are already the result of exploitation. When the tax system distributes this in the form of social wages, this is money back in the pockets of the workers.

In the discussion of expanding social programs, we are speaking purely of wages.

>>5204396
>It makes them petty bourgeois -- literally, petty property holders.
That's not "literally" petty bourgeois; it's not about owning property. In any case remember what Marx wrote about them. It's an intermediary class, pulled one way and then the other. A lot of ink has been spilled by contemporary Marxists trying to figure this group out. Trotskyists would all but eliminate them, including most "middle class" occupations in the working class, Poulantzas enlarged the category to the point that his working class was a tiny minority incapable of political power.

From the Manifesto:

In countries where modern civilisation has become fully developed, a new class of petty bourgeois has been formed, fluctuating between proletariat and bourgeoisie, and ever renewing itself as a supplementary part of bourgeois society. The individual members of this class, however, are being constantly hurled down into the proletariat by the action of competition, and, as modern industry develops, they even see the moment approaching when they will completely disappear as an independent section of modern society, to be replaced in manufactures, agriculture and commerce, by overlookers, bailiffs and shopmen.

>>5200189
Is that really that weird? I've never asked anybody that, but it was pretty common among some of my friends in college in the dorms to ask each other to leave for that sort of thing. They were all pretty open about that stuff. Is that really that weird?

>>5204456
Yes it is. But then again society is getting progressively more decadent and open about sexual deviancy so maybe in some circles no.

>>5202951
>Major in Spanish while taking the department's grad level literature courses.

Not only did I do the same degree with different books, but I became fluent in another language and also filled my resume volunteering at hospitals and non-profits. Already have a job that will support me on my own while I work with profs translating plays that are about to go out of copyright.

>>5199928
Move out with what fucking money?

>>5204469
Is it really sexual deviancy when everyone jacks off though? That was the whole thing. nobody cared because everyone lived in such a close proximity. It seemed silly to pretend that nobody did it.

>>5204667
>not being ashamed of your sexuality
Profligate.

>>5203839
recently?