/lit/ - Literature

>>6243751
>your friends/ people you spend time with
They aren't because I have none.

>>6243761
better than anxious-guilt-ing yourself over seeing old friends who have nothing to say to you, or about anything, really.

>>6243751
Fairly so. Each one has his own field of expertise (perks of living in a "smart people" structure while at uni), in which they are far more cultured than me, and as far as reading and intelligence go, I'd say they're a bit beneath me but that's probably because I spend a fuckton more time than them reading/writing instead of actually doing my homework and attending lessons

My girlfriend is in highschool but she's pretty intelligent and well-read (reads Freud, Bukowski, the Beats, Dosto and everything I send her way) and in a couple of years she'll probably be more erudite than me.

A close friend of mine, older, is a published author and philosopher, and pretty much what I am on steroids so yeah, looking up to him and stuff. Life's good.

One is sort of a part animal troglodyte with no interest in even the degree he's enrolled in.
One is an intelligent 4chan type who completely wastes his potential.He's the only one who reads at all (Fantasy novels, GoT, that kind of stuff)
One is a semi smart metalhead whom I can't really stand for longer periods of time.

They aren't really my friends either.

>>6243751
They rewatch shitty 90s sitcoms on Netflix and gossip about their fellow mouthbreathers' life events. They have a very vague (and skewed) awareness of current affairs. They have read next to no classic literature since they left high several years ago. They don't entertain new ideas or even contemplate anything outside of their daily life such as what's for dinner, who they are going to hang out with, or what they are going to numb their brains with on TV. And I say these things about good students (grade wise, nothing more than that) at a quality American university. I think they are hopeless until I'm riding with cracked-up poor folks on the city bus; that's when I truly realize the depressing reality of our society.

>>6243751
More intelligent.
Less well-read
Less intellectually curious

"People I spend my time"= people I see in college.
I don't spend time with anyone because I don't have friends and I don't like to go out.

>>6243788
>They aren't really my friends either.
I laughed.

As for mine, they don't read but at least they lift weights with me. I haven't had an arousing discussion in months.

have one "friend"

my "d-boy" (heroin dealer)

doesn't read

>>6243751
Has anyone had personal correspondence with another /lit/izen outside of 4chan? be it for proofreading, discussing books, talking politics, etc.? Was it a good experience and would you do it again?

>>6243847
I'd love to but this place is too impersonal for me to know people well enough and send them a message or something

>>6243844
>(heroin dealer)
How coincidental, only yesterday I was thinking about whether I would try heroine despite my having known people to have lost their lives to her. I decided I would, but don't know where to go about finding it. How do you like it?

I don't see my friends at all anymore because outside of work all they do is play video games. I don't really know how to rank them on intelligence because they performed better than I did in school and university but they now don't really have anything to show for it and, if they were intelligent, they wouldn't settle for such mundane lives, right?

>>6243844
>>6243881

Stay safe, now, boys.
You're the only friends I've got!

>>6243881

don't be a fucking dumb cunt

i'm sure you're good enough at playing the try hard by now you don't need to lose your life to it

>>6243901
I believe that for one to be successful writer, one must experience everything that offers a new feeling. I have heard a number of times that there exists no greater pleasure than that which heroine provides and so I think it would be beneficial to experience, if only to understand it and be able to use my own words to describe it.

>>6243899
>You're the only friends I've got!
You're a darling.

I went to one of the top universities in the UK and have lots of friends from there, but I don't think I know any people my own age who are genuinely well-read. There's maybe 2 people who are interested in literature and philosophy, and they're both quite pretentious and pseudo-intellectual (but so am I, so who am I to judge). I don't consider myself to be well-read, so I was fairly surprised to learn that I had read far more than the 10-15 people I know who actually studied literature and/or languages. I do tend to hang around with sporty crowds so that may skew the results a bit, but I think in general the vast majority of young people, even at university, are completely apathetic about any sort of intellectual activity outside their school curriculum. It's not that they're unintelligent, there's just so many social distractions that they don't care about anything 'deeper'. I actually think the American university system is better, because students from the UK only focus on one subject, have a very poor understanding of anything else, and are not well-rounded at all.

>tfw besides dead authors, /lit/ is the closest thing to a friend you have.
kill me

>>6243920
I wish I didn't know that feel.

>friends

Marriage and kids will quickly limit that number of interesting and curious friends. They want to spend time with you because you're an escape from the mundane and monotonous life they have chosen, but I get little from hanging out with them besides catching up and repeating the same stories from high school or college.

The odd thing for me is - I was always that guy that poked fun at 'married life', that kid who said he would never get married. I explained to my friends in college that I'm always worried of 'settling'. That people finally meet difficulties in life, attempting to strike out on your own takes effort, and decide that the standard of getting married and having children somehow resolves that. Yet somehow following that same sentiment at this age makes me an ass?

>>6243912

>I believe that for one to be successful writer, one must experience everything that offers a new feeling.

lol what a sophomoric little axiom

you're still young aren't you.

>>6243788
Are you my flatmate?

>>6243920

>>6243881
im actually the person you replied to

I'm not an actual addict, an addict uses every day of their lives, I only use sometimes. People who claim if you try it once you're addicted for life and will be withdrawing every day are lying. Plenty of people don't get addicted, and even less actually die. Obviously it's still dangerous (can OD from dealers adulterating the dope with something called fentanyl, which is almost a guaranteed death, or some other dangerous cut) but just not what it's made out to be.

The experience though, is very nice. Opiates are literally chemical happiness (I've also taken to calling them "chemical nihilism"). I'm trying now to limit myself to only opiate-based pills though. It's a bit safer because you know the amount of opiate you're ingesting and you know it's not adulterated with anything deadly. You can certainly get a similar experience with pills.

It's a little known fact, though, that heroin = morphine. It's a "pro-drug" for morphine. If you have morphine pills, you essentially have heroin.

Is it possible to intentionally get good friends? Any time I read about people having best friends for life etc. it always seemed to happen by chance. All my friends have been like the ones described here >>6243788 to some degree and that's from meeting people at school and university. Now I'm on the other side, I'll probably be lonely forever but at the same time, I feel like I'd be wasting my time meeting new people because they'd end up similar to the people I've known before.

>>6243751
two of my friends are coming from high middle class families with a lot of intellectual background. They are depressed but talented in their own domain and don't want to live a normal life. So now they are producing close from nothing and trying to get their existential shit together.
One of em is your typical bipolar friend, brilliant but somewhat too hardcore. He's on med though.
Another is a neet. Nice and always a good bro for vidya.
The latter is kinda frat bro but after the usual catchphrase he is the more intelligent man i know when he's speaking about relationships and human relations in general.
And me i'm the book nerd, versed in psychology and the only one smoking and drinking too much. I laugh too often and too loud too. Oh well.

I don't compare much to them now, much less that i used to do. I admire their composure and how well they speak as i'm coming from low class and haven't their background. I've improved on their contact. Generally we learn a lot from each other. I would say we can understand each other and when we can't there is always one of us trying to understand.

>>6243960
The experience offering supreme pleasure is what attracts me, but what brought me to this thread in the first place is also what prevents me from trying: I don't have the friends to introduce me to it and I can't bring myself to look around on my own.

>>6243751
People that are close to me tend to think I over-think things and prefer to avoid subjects when I discuss my theories and interpretations of quantum physics.

When ever I discuss something that comes to mind I end up with a reply like "Anon, I wish I had time to come up with a thought like that, my mind is to busy worrying about work" or "Your mind works differently, why do you think about these things instead of work or bettering yourself."

Literally all my friends are redneck high school dropouts. They don't look down on me for being an egghead whatsoever.

>>6244006
is this a copypasta? lel

>>6244022
I don't get it? it's not.

is this some sort of new meme?

>>6243751
>intellectually curious are your friends
Not fucking at all.

I very much like to explore lines of thought or hypotheticality, and often times I'm treated like I'm dumb and actually believe the ideas I'm entertaining.

I still think I haven't found many "friends" and instead I have people whom I don't hate that I do things with outside of work and school

I have a friend who moved away that I correspond with over e-mail every now and then who is probably the best read person I know (well versed in philosophy, critical theory, european poetry and literature).

I also have another "friend" (though that guy is being an asshole who always rejects hanging out) who likes existential philosophy and modern literature. He's your typical college whitey.

The other two friends I see a few times a month aren't into reading at all.

I also regularly talk about whatever I'm reading with a couple guys that frequent my usual cafe, but we never hang out outside of that situation.

I'm intellectually superior to pretty much everyone.
I'm not educated and I'm not very articulate so most people don't notice how ingenious I truly am, but thats just it: I'm a mother fucking genius/

>>6244078
10/10

>>6243981
well there's always the darknet
reddit.com/r/darknetmarkets
reddit.com/r/darknetmarketsnoobs

>>6244078
>5/10 you tried

>>6243751

all my friends are drug addicts, have no job, live off their rich parents, have absolutely no culture, and they only live to fuck

the only difference is that i'm also a genius

>>6243881

You have better drugs, don't fall into that

>>6243751

All of my friends are intelligent and 'intellectually curious' as you put it, though they are largely interested in different topics than I am.

While I am more interested in literature and philosophy, they are more interested in math, or history, or biology.

I am more well-read than my entire inner circle of friends by far, though I have a feel other friends who are very well read as well.

>>6243788

The core group of people you hang out with aren't your friends? Do you not have any friends?

>>6244006

>my theories and interpretations of quantum physics.

you are too idealistic, or young, or both

>>6244111
Bitch, I'm winning.

>>6243961

I know what you mean. My 'group' was pretty much established when we were all 11 or 12, and we just never stopped hanging out. We all went very different directions i.e. only 2 of us have a degree, one is pretty much forever single, one is a drug dealer, one is moving to Korea, etc. But our personalities are so similar we just never stopped hanging out.

Now, the friends I made in college are much different. We were all old enough and smart enough to gravitate towards people with similar interests and intelligence.

/endramble

>>6244127

> I have a feel

make that "I have a few"

>>6244133
They're the group I hang out with at uni and in my free time on occasions.

I don't really have friends, the only more meaningful social connection I have is more of a love interest.

>>6243788
This hit a bit close to home.
All my friends are some combination of incredibly stupid, mean or selfish.
My friends who aren't like this don't live in my city any more ;-;

>>6243751
I have plenty of good friends. Unfortunately, I'm too much of a self-loathing and narcissistic asshole.

I might be depressed though, I don't know really, because I've always been like this.

>>6243920
Anon, that's terrible.

>>6244006
this:
> When ever I discuss something that comes to mind I end up with a reply like "Anon, I wish I had time to come up with a thought like that, my mind is to busy worrying about work" or "Your mind works differently, why do you think about these things instead of work or bettering yourself."
>>6244045
and this:
> I very much like to explore lines of thought or hypotheticality, and often times I'm treated like I'm dumb and actually believe the ideas I'm entertaining.

I know that feeling well. I have one friend who will actually engage with me no matter what I decide to offer him. All of my other friends just look at me as if I'm an asshole trying to prove how smart he is. It's as if almost none of my friends are able to think at all.

>>6244069
That doesn't sound bad at all. What do you do at the cafe, how regular, and what's your age?

>>6244138
Not at all, he's giving you an example of an interest that other people don't take his discussion of seriously. People like you.

I'm in the progress of neglecting my friends because I am somehow unable to put effort in maintaining relationships but I haven't stopped liking them for one bit.

It feels kind of strange. I feel like I'm retiring from public life. Which will probably result in loneliness, but it also feels inevitable and 'right' for some reason.

>>6244006
I know that feel m8.

I had a tirade about how people should be more pissed about what ISIS are doing in the Levant at school, and everyone just looked at me weird, and asked me why the fucked I cared so much.

I asked them why they don't, and they just shrugged.

>>6244237
> his face
every fucking time, right in the feels.

>>6244248
I'm in the exact same situation.... I used to hang out with one of my friends almost everyday and the last year I've seen him maybe 3 times.

>>6244248
not only exactly this
>>6244255
but exactly this, too.

I have three friends currently. Every time I see them they seem less and less interested in talking to me. How do I make new friends? How do I find friends that share my interests.

Every time I go on /lit/ these days it reads more and more like /adv/.

do we start a this-thread-specific/ close-/lit/ email group..?

>>6244251
They probably thought it was odd because it doesn't mean much to care about something happening on the other side of the world, no matter how terrible it is.

I'm more well-read than everyone but my dealer, ironically.

>>6244255
are you me?
I lived with my best friend, hung out everyday, worked at the same place.
Since then he's gotten into heroin, got picked up with unregistered firearm, his gf wants me to deal with the guy that snitched on him...
._.

>tfw fall in love with best friend
>get mad that I'm not his top priority
>embarrassed so completely disconnect
>thinks I hate him

Everyone is an expert in their own field.

I love reading, but can only stand non fiction stuff like politics and history. I can ramble on about them forever, but the type of fiction on here you guys talk about I struggle to get through.

I'm currently reading Storm of Steel and am liking it though :^)

>>6244291
Of course, most people don't give a shit if it doesn't happen to themselves. It just reinforces my cynical worldview anyhow.

>>6244297
That's some whack shit man.

>>6244312
That's so weird, learning is boring af m8

>>6243784
How old are you?

>>6244147
Proof pl0x

My core four friends are mixed in those regards. Three of them form a group when we all met in college (we were all Literature undergrads) so I'll start with them.

-One is very intellectually curious (just got her Master's in Humanities) and we frequently talk about different media interpretations, implications, etc.
-One is loves comic books but sometimes we discuss literature. She's smart and well-read, but not as interested in academic/intellectual pursuits as I am. She's the only of my close friends still in town so we mostly talk about how our depressive episodes are going.
-The last one of the group has always been into to trashy commercial fiction (the only thing I have to remember her by after she moved are her copies of the Fifty Shades trilogy that she just left in my damn car--the above person was lucky enough to inherit her booze, the bitch). She's not really interested at all in more academic stuff. She's also not terribly intelligent when it comes to academics as well as common sense, but she's someone I can talk to easily even if we don't have a lot in common.
All three of them have been kind of exhausted with jobs or other circumstances lately and haven't really been reading a lot, let alone contemplating on intellectual subjects.

The other one is getting his Master's in Library Sciences. He thinks he's much more intelligent than he really is and is god-fucking helpless when it comes to effective communication and common sense. I don't think we've ever talked about books now that I think about it. We've talked history a little bit. Honestly we mostly just communicate through hugs which means we barely communicate at all atm other than asking "how are you?" on a weekly basis since he lives a thousand miles away.

So comparatively, they're not really as well-read as me or intellectually curious. I really wish they were moreso because when I get in a low mood and withdraw socially and start reading a lot I would at least be able to talk about the material I'm withdrawing in rather than reading all by myself.

>>6244248
>I'm in the progress of neglecting my friends because I am somehow unable to put effort in maintaining relationships but I haven't stopped liking them for one bit.
I know that feel.

My closest group of friends don't even bother to invite me anymore, now that I've neglected them for so long. Another group of friends I have used to hang out weekly, but that's tapering off now to about once per month. Another group of friends (long story) has re-adopted my ex after 3 years, so I don't hang out with them anymore.

People are just too much work and they all have their own agendas, none of which involve you or what you want.

>>6243920

Better than have stupid stoner friends you can't stand and hollow people around you that you don't even want to spend time with and they harass you because you're blowing them off.

>>6243751
Only four other people I know read when it isn't required. The other people are those who I work with, and avoid talking to as much as I can.

One only reads scifi and fantasy novels, though our tastes align within it. We still meet to get drunk and play various sports with other friends. He spots me at the gym.

The second only reads rereads books she read in High School, and Manga. Almost never leaves her house, but has a very nice collection of movies. Her older brother, a Russian major visits often and gives me good book recs, though I don't spend much time with him, and never alone.

The next reads exclusively history books, mostly on European and near eastern battle tactics. He gives good recs for his niche, and sometimes we talk about them while playing EU4, or Total War. A catholic, and for some reason doesn't like Thomas Aquinas, though we just don't talk about it.

The last enjoys classic literature, save the Greeks. Dostoy, Faust and the kind. We don't really speak much, since recently I gave him quite the ribbing about being a communist in High School despite never reading Plato. We used to be best friends, but started to grow apart in High School, and after that I only talked to him because I think his butt is in need of a good tearing, despite his "Holier than thou" attitude which can be grating.

I've known all these people for about 20 years, and slowly I've come to realize that I don't really enjoy their company, but it's better than the alternative.

I wouldn't say I'm that intellectually curious myself, as my favourite books are Dune, Ulysses, Don Quixote, and The Brothers Karamozov, and I never can find the energy to pursue knowledge outside of my small field, though the fault is purely my own.

>>6243751
my best friend is, NO ONE ELSE is. fucking no one.

>>6243761
>>6243784
>>6243788
>>6243945
I dont have friends, I was a walking target in elementary and part of middle school, I spent highschool "associating" with people I could hold a conversation with, with out wanting to step in front of a train (surprisingly mostly stoners, or gamers/4channers and coders, who may or may not be stoners) I realized I just talked to these people, not because I wanted to (except for one person I had an insane crush on), but just so I can pretend I dont feel alone annnnnd eventually I spent lunch alone in the stairwell junior and senior year reading watever faggy shit I was reading then (City and the Pillar, In search of Lost Time, James Robert Baker, malcolm gladwell, Augusten Burroughs) I'm 21 and have no friends

>>6243761
ok pushkin

Any /lit/izens here from Canada? I'm wondering how many of us there are...

>>6243812
this is like reading my journal
damn.

where are you people in the real world?

>>6244620
Yes. I mostly lurk though.

>>6243761
Actually I came to the point when I feel friends are only wasting my time. There´s too much effort in keeping up a decent friendship and I feel exhausted when even thinking about having to spend time wiht somebody else than my gf. Some people may need this social interaction, but often it may be just this cliché of ´you have to have friends you neckbeard´, though.
>tfw best friends are books

>>6243847
I've always wanted to do this
>tfw no /lit/izens in my area

>>6244620
right here. live in BC. have always wanted to meet /lit/friends