/lit/ - Literature

where else would you live?

reading is just a way to pass the time.

if you wanted to be successful you should have picked a single author and followed him to the end of the earth

not changing your mentor every week and advancing a tiny bit in every way of life

>>5869754
But i thought reading was supposed to make you smart and change your life for the better, not just past the time!

>>5869761
Teach me how.

>not exclusively reading authors that will help convince you to kill yourself

The sad truths are that reading has noon gains but then diminishing returns. And its gains are best exercised by someone who puts effort in to other aspects of their life.

happiness is a state of mind friendo, if japanese hermits living in moldy, dilapidated huts could find peace and joy in seeing the moon in a raindrop, so can you.

If just knowing things would help you achieve something I could make a word document king of the world. You need to apply it.

t. person who doesn't apply it

>>5869792
>become extremely delusional and you will be happy
yeah we know

>>5869767
>Teach me how.

If you are serious about this, throw out every book you own, get rid of your computer (or at least find a way not to waste time on it), and get the Bible and the Analects of Confucius.

Focus on these works from the Bible:

Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus/Sirach (Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach are not in Protestant Bibles, so you will have to get a Catholic one, or a Protestant one that includes "apocrypha".

Forget everything you have ever learned and all your assumptions about yourself, others, and life in general, and learn some the proverbs contained in these books by heart. It's not important that you learn many of them; what's important is that you "ponder them in your heart", that they reach the depths of your soul, so that they change you and begin to form in you good habits. If you learn five proverbs and acquire a thorough understanding of them and practice them you will be more wise than if you read the entire canon of literature/philosophy and only remained in the sphere of "art appreciation" or "philosophical speculation" which is useless and dissipating.

If you are melancholy and require soothing poetry: google "Alberto Caeiro poems" and click the link that takes you to alberto-caeiro.blogspot. The poems are based on the idea that you should not think/analyze things and just live contently in the moment, which is good advice if you are troubled with stress and melancholy.

>>5869792
>happiness is a state of mind friendo

It's not that easy though. It's like the whole idea of not worrying about things outside your control. It's an easy idea, but it's hard to follow.

>>5869807
>just live contently in the moment
the moment is almost always shit though

Think of when grabbing your cock with your hands. The odor your fingers have is your life at the moment. But you can change your state of mind and start washing. Because when Paul says he's going to do something Jack doesn't contradict him.
I know, it's hard. But focus on your daily routine. What is necessary?
Ask yourself, must monkeys always smell their fingers? What about your mothers?
Read books.

>>5869714
Reading can only do so much. Stop reading and start doing.

>>5869807
>throw out every book you own, get rid of your computer (or at least find a way not to waste time on it), and get the Bible and the Analects of Confucius.

topkek
there are people who actually believe this

>>5869807
>throw out every book you own, get rid of your computer (or at least find a way not to waste time on it), and get the Bible and the Analects of Confucius.

Godammit, Americans.

>in b4 fedora-tip reply

>>5869815

Recognising it means you're halfway there, friend.

>>5869891
That picture...

>>5869714
>literary fiction

I really wonder which books do you count as "philosophy"
tell me please.

>>5869807
tips fedora

>>5869902
>I really wonder which books do you count as "philosophy"

I mostly read primary sources of well-known philosophers like Plato, Aristotle ect.

What did you think i meant by reading philosophy books anon?

Literature is supposed to supplement a benign, hedonistic lifestyle. Don't rely on it as your sole means to satisfaction. There are many tactile ways to engage your senses & their emotional/spiritual counterparts. Indulge all of it.

That said, if you're the typical bourgsie Western dolt who has already dulled their innate sense of wonder & pleasure, a period of asceticism might be in order. Total denial of all indulgence for a set period.

I remember when I was released from jail, the air never smelled sweeter, the pine bushes never smelled pinier, the cookies were never so cookieish etc.

I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Also, consider finding a better job. Repetitive labor is fine for mental midgets, but not for someone as obviously distinguished as yourself OP. You need to be stimulated & often as possible. Take chances & feel alive.

>>5869912
>Also, consider finding a better job. Repetitive labor is fine for mental midgets, but not for someone as obviously distinguished as yourself OP. You need to be stimulated & often as possible.

What kind of job would you recommend?

>>5869908
reading fiction and philosophy didnt really go together to me...

either, you read those books mindlessly, or its just not the path that you should have taken and you cant use the attributes that you have gained from reading such a great literature.

I have dropped out of university at age 18 when I was starting my own business just because I couldnt find enough time to read philosophy, which I really love (I was reading Plato The republic in the moment when I dropped out, I remember it to this day). I loved Aristotle and Machiavelli, but Schopenhauer was my favourite.

The business grew, Im 22 now, I make 6 times the average wage in my country, I have a loving wife that gave me two children and I couldnt imagine my life go any better.

Devote your life to the study and practice of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism, it's the only way out.

>>5869891
I'm English.
What books do you think contain good practical wisdom? Plutarch?

>>5869912
>Literature is supposed to supplement a benign, hedonistic lifestyle

This. "Literature" is the invention of epicure aristocrats.

>>5869925
Look here, anon. Stop asking other people's advice on how to improve your lot. That seems to be your primary problem.

And if you can't transcend that particular limitation, I'm afraid you're destined to be just another of life's rubes. May as well give up books & start watching group sports, memorizing the local soapbox shill's talking points & seriously considering them.

OTHERWISE, it's very simple. You isolate what things make you feel passionate & dedicate yourself to making an impact in that particular area of human expression, utilizing your natural born creativity & resourcefulness, whilst simultaneously developing the capacity to harness inevitable change & transforming your life into a higher reality.

If you like food; cook. You like pretty pictures; photograph. You like pimpin'; pimp.

>>5869929
How did you start a business? Did you have a mentor? Where did you get the money?

>>5869925
chinese massage parlor

>>5869714
>I THOUGHT READING THIS SHIT WAS SUPPOSED TO CHANGE MY LIFE!
>>still live at home and work at a shitty factory for min wage
lol who promised you all those things?

Reading doesn't change your life. Taking the knowledge you've acquired and using it does.

>>5869930
COMMUNIST SCUM

>>5869993
I try to, but society tries to work against you using that knowledge

>>5869974
How do you feel passion?

>>5869993
Depending on what you're reading, the simple act of digesting the information can affect your reality depending on how it resonates with you.

>>5869976
I started importing small ammounts of coconut oil
until it grew bigger and bigger.
I used my savings and then my fathers money until I got financially selfsufficient (took about 1 year). It took me 1,5 year of e-mailing 2 hours EACH day, studying on how to make the contract (I had no law school, my father read it when it was complete and pointed some things out, thats it), but god damn i worked HARD.

Telling my parents that Im dropping out before the oil actually started making HUGE money was emotionally the most stressful thing in my life.

how old are you?

>>5870005
by doing HUGE, and i mean HUGE variety of different things (sports, hobbies - just try everything)

However, I have a theory:
Since neing passionate about something is just a spike of dopamine levels in your brain while doing certain activity, if you play too many games/watch too much TV/play too many sports as a child, you will need more dopamine to actually feel "passion" (the receptors become dull, less sensitive), and since youre "spoiled" from doing so many good and easy things as a child, you wont be able to find as much enjoyment as you used to and you become a manchild forever.

thats the tax you pay buddy

>>5870004

How so? I mean, the only people stopping you from doing anything are the government.

>>5870020

It can affect how you asses and act. But just the act of recording information in whatever way your brain does that isn't going to change your life, if we're speaking metaphorically and not literally. Some neurons might get shifted around or some neural pathways will be built, but it isn't going to help you make great strides in your career or passions.

>>5870042
This isn't true is it?

I spent all day for years as a NEET doing everything i enjoyed until i became numb to it and now that i work and have little free time, i am supposed to find my free time precious and enjoy things i do in a little window more, but i don't enjoy anyway

>>5870005
Passion isn't a feeling, it's a state of intensity. I've said something similar about misconstruing superiority as a feeling. No-one ever "feels" superior or "feels" powerful (these consist in relative states), insofar as there's a feeling it is a conscious residue or a product.

I don't "feel" strong, pressing 80 kilos over my head is strong. My feeling of pride or adrenaline rush or masculinity or whatever after doing so should not be misconstrued as the state itself. So the point is not to pursue a feeling, it is to pursue states of intensities of living that produce that feeling.

>The distinction is nothing to do with constancy or inconstancy. Nor is it one between homosexuality and heterosexuality, though that’s discussed in the text. It’s a distinction between two kinds of individuation: one, love, through persons, and the other through intensity, as though passion dissolved persons not into something undifferentiated but into a field of various persisting and mutually interdependent intensities (“a constantly shifting state, but not tending toward any given point, with strong phases and weak phases, phases when it becomes incandescent and everything wavers for an unstable moment we cling to for obscure reasons, perhaps through inertia

>>5869714
>spend all my free time reading philosophy and literary fiction
>still live at home and receive welfare

>>5870050
yup, thats exactly it

almost all people have it like that, youre different only in the way that you actually are aware of it.

youll get used to it (just like everyone that didnt plan what is he going to do in long future), itll be a bit harder but you will.

>>5870082
where do you live?

>>5870096
Eutopia.

>>5870098
don't only the nordic countries have good welfare?

>>5870078
I still hate you for trolling stalker threads but I kinda like your posts on lit.

>>5870109
No.

>>5870021
What gave you the inspiration to start selling coconut oil of all things?

It's strange to me that a young guy can decide to sell some product like that I get wealthy. I'd have thought that there'd be experienced businessmen already selling it that you would never be able to compete against without having experience.

>>5870125
I used to post all the time in /vg/'s threads, not even troll posts.

https://archive.moe/vg/search/username/Deep%26Edgy/page/1/

hope misery 2.0 turned out well

>>5869714
>spend all my free time reading philosophy and literary fiction
>still live at home and work at a shitty factory for min wage
All that just explains how the universe works, and how no one could ever change anything that matters.
That empowers you, but not in any materialistic way. It just makes you feel better because you know more than almost everyone around you.

>>5870167
I mean back in the stalker generals on old /v/.

Didn't really play misery 2.0, been out of the stalkan mood for the past few months but once the mood is back I'll hop into new alpha.

>>5870154
I knew that there were many people already shipping oil to my country, but I went to site called alibaba.com, wrote an e-mail to atleast 100 factories that produce it and chosen the one with nice price and great quality.

that mindset "there must be someone else doing it" comes from you not actually doing anything at all (besides reading obv)

i really think that some people are born with the attributes to become succesfull in no matter what situation they are born into, just like someone is born to live a happy life no matter what situation is he born into

>>5870199
yeah I guess
what you did is really impressive
gj m8

>spend most of my time studying philosophy (primary texts, intros, critical commentaries), poetry, and fiction
>watch and engage with great film
>explore music of all kinds

Still have no real friends (the few I have haven't responded or contacted me in weeks), no gf, see no real meaningful social outcome for my life now that I'm out of college.

>>5870930
do you think /lit/ has made you seem arrogant or cold maybe?

>>5870930
I think way too many people are like this. Its an epidemic or even more like a subtle trap. The lifestyle feels okay until you realize you're left very emotionally impotent with no real idea of society. People are sort of instinctively repelled from you because you don't have any real interest in them. I feel like too manysign up for this shitty gig. There is a cure, probably.

>>5870993
Possibly, but I really try not to let any of my overriding despising of a lot of normal socialization show--in fact I'm usually light, humorous and genuinely excited to see and hang out with people.

I have terrible self-esteem though and my strong thoughts can make themselves very apparent.

>>5871003
>There is a cure, probably.

There is. It's reading Alberto Caiero and Celine and embracing extreme anti-intellectualism as a corrective.

>>5870199

no offense but the way you write suggests you have a small brain

>>5870930

why do people need other people so badly? I don't understand. I have one good friend and I live with my gf and I basically live my life like you buddy. I spend most of my time reading, watching films with my gf, listening to music with my gf and occasionally going to shows. Most people don't hold much interest for me because we have totally dissimilar interests. I don't see why this is such a bad thing.

>>5871118
>why do people need other people so badly?
>one friend and gf

there's a big difference between relative and complete social isolation, though. however, i agree for the most part - i have like 2-3 friends i communicate with regularly and am pretty content with that, though i think after a certain point i want to socialize as a 'new experience' rather than wanting to socialize specifically. consuming 'media' all day dulls the mind, regardless of how 'high brow' it is, imo.

>>5871157

but the average person isn't interested in the things I'm interested in. why would I spend time socializing with people I have no interest in?

>>5870930
>tf dropped out of 'popular society' in like 10th grade and spent all my time 'gitting gud' at media consumption
>tf now have 'better' taste than like anyone i know in music, lit, film

i think it might just be a phase really. now im moving towards improving (read: becoming elitist in) physical fitness and my main interests are to get the fuck outta the shitty state im in and spend my spare time doing innawoods stuff.

i think part of the problem, for me at least, is that i grew up in a very asocial and 'introverted' family and spent too much of my youth playing vidya (which i cant seem to enjoy anymore).

>>5871168
having had the fortune of meeting a decent amount of people that have similar pseudo-intellectual interests with me, ive come to realize that i need to diversify my life. most really 'normal' people i find disturbingly boring. i figured if i pursue my other latent interests outside of the 'intellectual' sphere, i can probably meet a wider variety of people who i share interests with.

>>5871118
>why do people need other people so badly? I don't understand.
>I have one good friend and I live with my gf

>>5871118
>have gf and one good friend

Tell me about how stupid it is that people need other people so badly when your gf dumps you and your friend starts avoiding you.

I would love to just have 2 or 3 good friends that I can live my life with (go to shows with, go to cafes with, go bookshopping with, drink with) but I pretty much don't have anybody. The last time I talked to a "friend" was two weeks ago and that was incidentally me running into him, asking him to later hang out, and then not hearing from him again. I asked another friend that I haven't seen in 3 weeks if they wanted to hang out this weekend and go no response.

I work in education so I at least get basic socialization but I pretty much live most of my life currently only in conversation with books and works of art and with strangers on the internet about said books and works of art.

I wake up in the middle of the night pretty often not even certain of who I am. That's the biggest worry when you start to lose significant social relationships. You don't have defined limits to bump against so the limits of who you are start to relax and blur.

A life of basic solitude makes one either beast or beyond human (to paraphrase Aristotle). I pretty much live succumbing to the former and in fits deluding myself into the latter.

it has

>>5871189
>tfw you realise you will become one of those annoying old talkative guys who just sit around on park benches and in cafés because it's the only way they can see other people

>>5871118
>why do people need other people so badly? I don't understand.
>I have one good friend and I live with my gf

>>5871189
>tf

have you tried to make any changes to facilitate meeting new people? even though it often feels like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps at times.

now ive just been getting physically fit as something-to-do and to boost my self-esteem, though i try not to focus on it too much, because i eventually get back to the point where i realize most of the goals i have set in my life thus far have just been a result of me misconstruing my feelings of isolation and purposelessness as being a result of anything but my actual social isolation.

ive always excelled at most things i 'put my mind too' but ive always been somewhat socially deficient. probably my greatest fear is that a year or two from now when ive graduated and got a great job ill still be the same miserable socially-'outcast' fuck that i am now.

however, i am lucky enough to have like 2-3 good friends i communicate with now and then, 1 of them ive even met through lastfm. expand your horizons m8

>>5869714

you need to read stirner

become a manipulative psychopath now, its free

>>5871118
>why do people need other people so badly? I don't understand.
>I have one good friend and I live with my gf

fucking normie scum

>>5871231

also, happiness is overrated. i was happy once, but i became extremely stupid and manipulable. it goes hand to hand

your wage and house are fortune. circumstances beyond your control can influence your ability or inability to have these things so it's useless to compare yourself to others in these terms. if it comes, hooray. if not, don't despair.

no outside force can give or take your knowledge and your virtues so they are worth pursuing

>>5871239
you can be happy and a cynical pessmistic cunt at the same time though.