/lit/ - Literature

I vlame you're mother when she gaves me a chitty blockjob

it doesn't

>>6185807
you're not an intellectual for one thing. You are laboring under intense self-delusions and that is why life seems so unfulfilling

read eric hoffer

Life does not suck, but the smarter you are the more adept you become at noticing disappointing missuses of opportunity.

I don't think its just capitalism that's to blame.
If all that is keeping you from happiness is capital you have a more easy path to happiness than most of us can ever hope for.

>>6185807
Capitalism takes part of the blame, but being an intellectual also contributes to the misery on its own, making it inescapable.

It only sucks if you're one of those impotent intellectuals. If you seize life and do what you want it's much richer and enjoyable than the life of an average prole. Find interests and dedicate yourself to them, travel, learn how to see beauty even in what's ugly, and I assure you you won't think it sucks. Don't listen to Hemmingway and his moronic quote. The happiest people I know are the most intelligent. Depression and anxiety is an impede intelligence.

Be like Nabokov and find things that make you happy. He had his butterflies, his wife, and literature. The issue with some intellectuals is that they're too passive. It's difficult to be happy and passive. That's the issue. It has nothing to do with intelligence or being an intellectual.

>>6185874
Oops, impediment to*

>>6185840
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-U-R-N!!!

>>6185840
nice

>>6185874
this tbh

>>6185874
Boom, lit is on fire today

>>6185874

This. Varieté c'est l'epice de la vie.

>>6185807
>Is capitalism to blame?
Only in a round about way.

>>6185874
Being a prole and being intellectual aren't in contradiction. Gramsci, mate, gramsci.

>>6185807
>self identifying
life sucks because youre a stupid teenager, not because youre supposedly an "intellectual"
I hate to resort to a meme but please put the fedora away, before you end up reading outside in public areas for weird reasons that make no sense

>call yourself intellectual
>be miserable
Oxymoron. What is intelligence if not one's ability to be happy?

>>6186177
rofl. great rationalization of your poor intellect

>claim to be an intellectual
>hating capitalism

You're either a hipster who pretends to read, or you're a college faggot who took babbie's first philosophy course.

>this fucking board

>>6185807
Yes. Aristocracy and a monarch are the only things that allow for intellectuals to flourish.

>>6186151
Yes, good point. I guess I should have said for your average non-intellectual.

>>6186177
Ignorance is bliss.

>>6186671
1/10

>>6185807

It sucks because you`re a egoistic self-centered prick who claims to have a superior intellect. Everyone around you is a dumb deluded sheep who can`t think for himself and you don`t understand why they get to be happy but you don`t.

Once you realize you`re actually not as smart as you think and get down from your high horse, you might actually start accepting life for what it is and be happy.

The trouble with a lot of humanities students, including myself way back when, is that you have a predisposition to be creative, and to appreciate creative achievements and values, but you lack a masculine side to your character which reinforces the desire to create with the self-discipline to strong will to facilitate your creativity. My no bullshit advice to you is to get into a routine of waking up early, reading, studying, completing your work, and writing. Organize your day and get all of the embarrasing writing out of your system as soon as possible.

Too many young beta white guys lacking a strong father figure allow their potential to be squandered by a casually nihilistic view of the world and a needy, self-pitying impatience because the fruits of their alleged genius isn't handed to them on a plate the same way all their childhood rewards were

>>6185874
Just because you're intelligent it doesn't mean you're automatically a good human. One reason why many intelligent people are happy, I assume, might be because they exploit the world around them. If you're an idealist on the other hand there is no reason to be happy. It's frustrating to see how things are and how they could be.

Congratulations, your friends managed to integrate themselves into an empty, meaningless world and make it worse. But at least -they- are happy. Great.

>>6186705

That's probably a truthful take on things.

Being a humanities student/graduate is exhausting when you feel as if you have to appreciate everything, lest you be considered a philistine.

I've been trying to work this out of my system for months to be honest, but I always come back to a character which lacks the assertiveness and it's fucking gay.

intellectuals are manchildren and turbodykes

>>6185807
>Why does life suck so much when you're an intellectual?

It doesn't and you're not. Fuck off you pseud cunt.

>>6186705
why is white guy slowly being synonymized with underachiever, and not even in a necessarily defaming way.

It comes off as literally a white guy patting himself on the back for being "not like other white guys" in some weird post-tumblr mistaken meta-awareness.

Like, I really don't understand how delusional you need to be to give this narrative when most of the "alpha" positions in most professions are still run by white guys.

This is literally the shit most SJW's talk about, although i guess they want to defame the white guy as well.

Holy shit i was born in le wrong generation. This identity politics shit makes me fucking chimp out.

>>6186705
Is this copy pasta? I recongnize this post from somewhere

>>6186758

>most of the "alpha" positions in most professions are still run by white guys.
>/lit/ still thinks we don't need feminism or race studies

>>6186758
>tumblr
>meta
>white guys
>SJW
>alpha
>shit
>le wrong generation
>chimp out
>indetity politics

Stop browsing /pol/. It's time to leave.

>>6186785
Stop browsing /lit/. It's time to leave.

>>6186758
I think it's because young white college guys who study humanities tend to be people who have families that earn enough money to pay their tuition etc, but who are still prone to apathy and lack of motivation etc

Bzzzz bzzzzz. Ya'll postin' in a bait thread.

>>6186763
lit thinks a lot of things.

>>6186785
never been on pol

>>6186802
I mean, i understand where this sentiment is coming from; but i also think its absurd. The idea that your education is actually just making you soft, and that you are too comfy to care.
Give me a break, these fields of study are dominated by white dudes,
being a white dude and giving yourself the excuse, even for a single moment, that nobody told you when to start running in life is totally fucking asinine.

its not just in humanities either. It happens to people. Nobody can make you excited for your own life. And you cant explain that responsibility away.

>>6186797
You're right. Can't argue with than.
There are little guys with pick axes and carbide lamps chipping away at our brains. Replacing it bit for bit with memes and other bullshit.

The whole "people suffer because they are smart, ignorance is bliss, I hate all these retards around me" mindset is a huge red flag for pseudointellectualism. It's purely a matter of attitude rather than wisdom; I've seen plenty of lowbrow types who think they're miserable because they know too much. Real intellectuals understand that there's no reason to be upset over anything if you can avoid it, working yourself up over other peoples mistakes or general injustices is a waste of time.

>>6186829
Your kid is dead, but I couldn't avoid it so it's ok. What's for dinner?

>>6186829
Also one might argue what's avoidable and what isn't. I suppose what some see as such doesn't have to be seen that way by others.

>>6186857

Simply epic. If you could avoid suffering because of such an incident, that would be for the best, but I'm not trying to suggest that such a thing is really feasible. What is feasible is not working yourself up over things that don't affect you on a person-to person level, such as nebulous social "issues" or happenstances in irrelevant countries.

>>6185807
Im skeptical as to whether I'd define myself as an intellectual.

DFW put it quite well once in an interview when he said he spends an hour a day writing and the rest of the day worrying about not writing. Once you start to make sense of the fluidity of language and how it never really does what you want it to do, then you start to see the process of writing as nothing more than avoiding landmines rather than weaving a path through them and it becomes so fucking difficult to even try and write

>>6186717
>>6186758
>responding to the pasta
>taking the bait

You guys should know this is obvious bait. Masculine guys either don't go to college or they go into finance or the humanities (from where they can then go on to law school). Look at any STEM class. It's a bunch of greasy-haired, bespectacled betas with no social skills.

>>6186713
Sick rationalization for your depression, brah. The world is meaningless no matter what path you choose. My friends enjoy themselves because they chose fields of study they're passionate about and because they've saved up enough money to do the things that they want. One of them built his own cabin on a lake. Another travels around the world. They're happy because they're active.

>>6186868
Honey, you know you shouldn't work yourself up over a dead kid. We could get another one. Your sadness really is just a sign of a lack of intelligence and wisdom.

>>6186923
>your kid dies
>not person-to-person basis
>you or your wife literally squeezed the little shit out of their body
It sounds to me like you've got some kind of intimacy issues.

>>6186932
Heyho! Ad hominem inbound. He's tapping out, I won the discussion.

>>6186936
Ad hominems can be perfectly valid rhetorical devices, twerp. Get back in the ring.

>>6186936
I'm not him, though.

>>6186943
Prove it.

gr8 b8 m8

>>6186950
Prove the opposite, bitch.

If life sucks for you, you aren't an intellectual. A true intellectual would know what makes life not suck.

>>6186971
I'm going to fast forward this conversation a bit.

I'm gonna pull up a list of miserable intellectuals to spite you, like Nietzche, Alan Turing and Paul Lafargue.

You're going to make some leaky assertion that my examples are not true intellectuals.

Then I'm going to accuse you of committing a no true scotsman, and slap you with my dick.

Then you will cry "But that's only an INFORMAL logical fallacy" and I will be too busy laughing in to my sugary porridge to care.

>>6186872
This is incredibly neurotic, it sounds like you're almost afraid of your own writing.

There is no such a thing as 'intellectual'. It's a modern construct used to describe people, who, in reality, quite passively masturbate over the great things that other men have had said and think that it is somehow fulfilling when they can recite something which has been said for over a thousand times.

Strive to be something more than that. Man doesn't need to be called intellectual; if you are intelligent, people will take that for granted, whatever your profession or choice of life might be. Wanting to be called intellectual or thinking yourself as one is pure ego and vain masturbation over your great self. Point is that you have to step out of the field of theory, in which 'intellectuals' are so profoundly well versed, instead, try applying your intelligence to get whatever goals you seek. You want to be rich? Go ahead, apply your intellect towards that goal. It's easy to fancy a thought or two, but getting them done requires both grit and intellect. You'll notice that getting things done are quite easy on the paper, but quite different in reality. The same applies to the 'intellectual''; he is smart on the paper, but in practice, not so much.

TL;DR
Stop fancying the 'intellectual' label and do what you want to do. Instead of passive masturbation over your thoughts, ego feeding yourself and 'woe-is-me' worldview, try getting a thing or two done in real life.

>>6185807
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." -- Christopher Marlowe

If you think the world is good, it's good. If you think it's bad, it's bad. It's within your power to shape your own perception. You have the choice to be happy, even as an intellectual. Now get out there and have some fun!

>>6187041
>try getting a thing or two done in real life

Here we have ideology in its purest form.

>>6187046
Such a great post, my friend.

Can't you see that large part of these so called intellectuals are just mental deficients, whose only goal is to appear 'smart'. People, who were much superior to us in their intellect, for the most part, never sought to see themselves labeled as smart; their work itself was a testament to that.

I have a hard time telling you what I mean, for I think that my self-expression is partly limited by my lack of experience and slight drunkedness. I have myself for some time aspired to be 'intellectual', only to realize that I was feeding my vanity, instead of trying to understand the essence of things, experience and life itself. Do you know what feeling?

>>6187062
>what feeling
That feeling.

I'm just a drunk idiot, for fucks sakes.

>>6186981
>Nietzche, Alan Turing and Paul Lafargue.

Those people were intellectuals. However, none of them were actually depressed.

>>6187041
>There is no such a thing as 'intellectual'.
>It's a modern construct

>contradicting yourself this blatantly

Stopped reading thereafter.

>>6187000
I don't know man. Maybe I'm genuinely neurotic, but this fear seems pretty close to the anxiety of influence bloom talks about, only I'm avoiding the fallacious reasoning of past philosophers or theorists instead of poets and writers. I'm a literature student, and I've found that the critical theory side of the course basically instigates more and more parameters you have to be aware of in your writing until you feel like you can't even write without invoking some fallacy or another

>>6185807
you're not an intellectual

>>6187062
>People, who were much superior to us in their intellect, for the most part, never sought to see themselves labeled as smart; their work itself was a testament to that.
You're making the mistake that the word intellectual implies that the individual is 'smart'. In its most simplest definition, an intellectual is someone who is engaged in and devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, it has essentially nothing to do with the intellect itself

>>6185807
ITT: pseudo-intellectuals

>>6187000
I think most good writers are. The ones you really have to worry about are the ones that think their writing is great.

>>6187387
Great job, anon!

>>6185807
i'm having a great time

>>6187396
Just doing my part.

>>6186936

I'm not that person, but as he and I both pointed out, I specified "person-to-person basis". Please actually try next time.

>>6186892
>they're happy because they're active
These Neo-Epicurean/Stoic-Material-(Classic) Nihilists are really starting to get on my nerves. You people are literally anti-Philosophy, like anyone in the Analytics.

>>6185874
I agree with this somewhat. While I think that impotence is not totally in ones control, it's not totally out of one's control either. The thing is, it doesn't help one's own mental health to labor under the belief that they are impotent. Obsessing over your own lack of control is a surefire way to stay that way.

I would add to this, though. I think that intellectualism tends itself towards a depressive lifestyle. It's important to stay active, and to be engaged in the world around you. When you're addicted to consuming information and parsing that information, it's easy to remain in a hypnotic and passive state. Reading, surfing the internet, watching television, can all be meaningful ways of taking in outside information. But what do you do after that?

I am, of course, deeply anti-capitalist. But I think, for the sake of your own sanity, it is important to play that game. You have a world to adapt to and interact with. Rail against it, but do so while keeping your wits about you.

>>6185807
Depends on the intellectual, but there are a variety of possible reasons.

Venture forth into ideas and it is really easy to snared into some awful loop of thought. Pessimisim, nihilism, antinatalism, etc. Shatter the vanilla of the vanilla general zeitgeist of the moment and there are so many ideas to ensnare one that many who venture forth aren't able to or do not wish to overcome them. They feel like they reached then end of thought and only found their own peak.

If you are an actual intellectual though, it can be a very lonely experience. You have traveled so far down some string of ideas and then going even farther so that when you look back the homeland is out of sight. You may understand other people, because you have been there, but they do not understand you because you have been where they cannot even see. People don't understand what gives one life blood so that often it feels like the only one one can look to is oneself.

>>6185807
Capitalism is great if you are an intellectual, just write some popular books and you are set. Or construct a ridiculous persona and marketable image. Be a more marketable Zizek.

>>6190002

Pretentious boring wanker.

>>6185807
It's because you're a narcissistic piece of shit incapable of introspection and robust life changes.

>>6186758
Its because there is no white identity like there is a black identity. White people only conceptualize themselves as white when some foreign group addresses them as such, but outside of that, we splinter by political and philosophical lines. When a white person attacks the concept of white people, they are essentially punching air.

>>6190098
Get out of here with that post-colonial new world shit.

There is no white identity because "whites" tend to not think of themselves as a monolithic entity (with the exception of some germans post-EU) but rather define themselves by a national or often even more specific geographic origin, like a region, city etc.

>>6190085
Where do you think you are?

>>6186829
Eh, I disagree that intelligence is a surefire path to happiness. So many artists were depressed.

I mean, what about Notes from Undergound? What about Steppenwolf? Are you suggesting they were written by retards?

I think you are trying to construct a just world fallacy here.

I find joy in things that others don't, not autistic shit like trains, but rather classical music, true fine art, books etc. Most things we probably have in common but as seen by my generation (I'm 21 in 2 days) is 'weird' and I dislike this label, I thought when I came to university I'd find at least a few like-minded people, but it's difficult.
I like to blame how left-wing everyone is at university and all this 'free-economy' shit that's hopping around, sadly university is still a popularity contest.

>>6190159
>pretending to be an intellectual
>not being popular
You're telling me you're just a super smart kid, but can't figure out how to be cool?

>>6190182
I know how to be cool and I've done it, I have a bigger circle of friends than I aimed for, I drink, I take drugs, I go clubbing, I enjoy house music and all of what I've listed, I do enjoy everything I do with them but I'd prefer to be with people who were able to read a book and discuss music at a higher grade than primary school level, it's saddening that people at university can't do that.

>>6190182
Not him, but I think actively trying to be cool is a surefire way to not be cool. Coolness is mainly an emotional matter you know, having high self-esteem, self-love, and confidence. Rewiring your brain to possess these things can be a real bitch.

>>6190202
THIS
I rewired to this: >>6190200
All at a risk, I didn't know what steps I was taking when I jumped into the mucky degenerate pool, I wasn't afraid though, I feel fortunate for being to close some doors on the way with the friends I've made while I took this leap, specifically with drugs, smoking, stereotypical 'lad' nature etc. Things are more exciting when you experience it first hand, not that I'm like this in person but just now I thought of this example:
>watch documentary on safari animals
>see it in person
there's a difference and it's exactly like reading a book about something wild and then the next day that story you read is real

>>6190212
when I say
>not like this in person
I mean
>I don't walk around astounded, gasping, constantly amazed by what's occurring around me

It's a crazy experience when you take drugs for the first time and you can't deny that

>>6190202
Am cool, can confirm

>>6190218
Psychedelic drugs are quite something, my god. Truly a crime against humanity that they are banned.

I tried to get into the "cool" things like bars and clubbing, but they have always been irritating experiences to me. Nowadays I'm focusing on building a life I really, truly enjoy, and ignoring the traditional metrics by which men are judged. I have to admit, it's getting better.

You all talk like fags and desperately need weightlifting, cold showers and nofap.

>>6190239
I'm embarking on this path too, slowly weening off of drinking a lot, taking drugs, even smoking - I've basically quit and only do it when heavily drunk for whatever reason- I just feel it's going to be a very lonely path and I know-so because none of my current friends are fit to do this with me and I will never let them know, I'll just lose contact over the years and evolve on my own.

I've also lost hope in finding a decent woman, in the market I'm on (clubbing) it's just one night stands or doomed-to-fail relationships so hopefully this new fog has something better to offer to us. I feel like you've done everything I have and so thank you because you've given me courage to move on quicker.

>>6185807
Barton Fink is a great film.
Barton's life sucked because of his own decisions. He was too pretentious for Hollywood, basically.

>>6185807
Here's my guess.
If you're sad in the first place, people are displeased at your sadness so you have to rationalize it. Intelligent people are really good at rationalizing it. The act of rationalizing sadness makes a person more sad.
Nobody asks you to rationalize happiness. That's why happy families (people) are all alike and unhappy families (people) are all different in their unhappiness/

Fuck all this bullshit about "if you were intelligent, you'd be happy you *insert buzzword*", and fuck the other way around. There are enough of both happy and unhappy intellectuals for it to prove that intelligence has no correlation to happiness.

>>6190255

>nofap
>implying it's not a weird masturbation shaming cult
>implying abstinence is in any way relevant to anything except through logical fallacies employed by religion and broscience

>>6190351

>weird masturbation shaming cult

spot-on

>>6185807

>>6190351
>implying abstinence is in any way relevant to anything except through logical fallacies employed by religion and broscience
It promotes discipline, restraint and willpower. I don't see how any of that is not desirable.

>>6190159
>I am a supreme gentleman

>>6190383

>implying discipline, restraint and willpower are in any way relevant to anything except through logical fallacies employed by religion and broscience

are you a meathead or just a retard

>>6190376
absolutely this.
picture summarizes this issue well.

>>6185807
>Why does life suck so much when you're an intellectual? Is capitalism to blame?


How would you know ? Your not an intellectual

>>6190544
Fuck off you limp-wristed nihilist coward.

>>6190549

neither are youre

>>6190553

>jerking off is a sin

you should go see a shrink about those daddy issues, kid

>>6190553
Just DO it.

>>6185874
>It's difficult to be happy and passive.

Very true.

>>6186981
Nietzsche is an incredibly positive thinker

The only problem im having is.

When Ienjoy shit that I guess is intellectual, but no one even knows what it is, and will recommend pleb shit if I talk about it.
Or when I talk about philosophy that is anything above Camus and Chomsky I get called a hipster, then contenplate suicude

I feel like a closeted fag.

>>6192660
Get better friends

>>6192682
>>6192682
No one in my daily life likes them, and theres no group to find like minded people.

So i have you guys

>>6192892
No one here is your friend.

Probably.

>>6190376

The more you see, the more you don't want too.

>>6185807

Because you live in a world of ideas and lowly forget how reality works and what lastly works for you

>>6194806

*slowly*

>>6185807
After reading most of the posts in this thread I tend to agree that someone who is truly an "intellectual" would logically determine that being sad is useless and would strive to better themselves so as not to be sad.

I maintain however that being depressed about something is a tool to be harnessed, and not something to wallow in. A person who is happy with their current situation will do nothing to better themselves, and will stagnantly flounder through life without striving for greatness. Someone who is depressed will be upset at what little they perceive themselves as, and will do everything in their power to become more.

If you're entirely happy it means you're resigned to never being anything more than your current self.

Life sucks in all ways.

When you're dumb and beautiful you're starving all the time.

>>6185807
yeah life is so much better for communist intellectuals

>>6185874
faaaag

>>6185807
I guess, because I'm an intellectual in a country with a proper welfare state and I'm having a blast.

>>6185807
I blame the Jews.

>>6192660
>I get called a hipster, then contenplate suicude

Why would their opinion of you force you to contemplate suicide? Stop giving a shit, you'll be better off

>>6195306
>Stop giving a shit, you'll be better off
If it only it were so simple. Even if I tell myself I don't give a shit the general anxiety will make me cringe later on.

>>6185874
Intelligence and happiness/committing series of meaningless actions to delude oneself into a state of happiness or acceptance are mutually exclusive.

>>6186892
I'm glad they're happy and active, they are however far from intelligent. No intelligent person could find happiness in such idiotic things, or anything at all for that matter. Your pleb friends do not provide any useful insight.

>>6185840
>intense self-delusions

Not OP, but please explain.

>>6195599
OP is implying that he's an intellectual.