/lit/ - Literature

I have incredible shit taste in just about most books I read, even though they're way out of my age category.

>I actually enjoyed Darren Shan's work a few years ago
>I like Nietzsche's work
>I've only been reading the 'Warrior cats' series as of lately mostly because I enjoyed them when I was younger and no longer find joy in reading


Please kill me, I'm in my late 20's. I shouldn't be enjoying such pleb tier material

>>6388207
why are you so concerned with fame/material success

>>6388207

o-o-oh God op I was gna watch another episode of full metal alchemist but you've inspired me to write before bed

>tfw you just want to be interviewed by the Paris review for the art of fiction

;-;

h-h-hold me

What is the point of this thread? I don't think anyone is seriously going to get fooled by the irony. Who is the performance for?

>>6388233
I feel OP's feel, and I don't care to be famous with material success...I just want to be good at what I want to be good at, and to be able to make it my living so I can pretend to be an adult too.

I just want it to be my support so when I wake up my life has been provided by what I have decided.

I don't care for fame. I just want support from the thing I care about. That's writing for me.

>>6388229
*slap*

There is nothing wrong with liking what you like. I'm the same age as you and I read mostly manga and Harry Potter. Enjoy it and don't care. Books are a one person activity, anyways. If anyone else has anything to say on what you read, their opinion is useless, because they're not forced to read the books with you.

>>6388241
Point is, there is literally nothing wrong with venting.

>>6388508
i'm guessing you come to /lit/ just to debate christians or something

>>6388207
holy shit you have a backyard? nice

>>6388207
I do this too.
Sometimes the interviews are about the book I have written, sometimes they are about a movie or a video game masterpiece which I made.
Other time it's heated political speeches in the parliament or inspirational pre-war speeches to my soldiers or the command staff(depends on my mood and the historical period I imagine myself in).
But I don't cry about any of that, regardless of if someone might think it's pathetic or whatnot, I enjoy these fantasies for what they are and go on with my life.

>>6388207
>sit in my sofa
>have extensive imaginary interviews at the Late Night Show
>Jimmy Fallon asks me about the current state of literature
>I lash out in an endless tirade on post-modernism and all writers and artists since modernism
>get a standing ovation from the audience
>celebrated as a hero in the papers the day after

thiswillneverhappen.jpg

>>6388207
The Commitments - Roddy Doyle
>>6388229
Kafka/10
>>6388233
Good double. The Double - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
>>6388234
At SwimTwoBirds - Flann O'Brien
>>6388241
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
>>6388259
A Pack of Lies - Geraldine McCaughrean no you can't dismiss it as a children's book
>>6388508
I don't know any Harry Potter titles but the book of Battle Royale is very good.
>>6388553
1984feeb
>>6388648
Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
>>6388657
Dreaming of Babylon - Richard Brautigan
>>6388695
Point Counter Point - Aldous Huxley when you're done reading postmodern meme books to fit in

>>6388763
>Dreaming of Babylon - Richard Brautigan
Is it any good?

>>6388793
I think it's great, but Bautigan isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's about a private detective who dreams about his Babylonian waifu too often to hold down any other job.

>>6388806
>Bautigan
Brautigan. I should get his name right when loving on him

>>6388806
Well the waifu is probably worth more then all the other jobs tbh.
Might check it out only if to have a laugh at myself.

>sit alone in my backyard during the day
>smoking cigarettes and drinking beer
>only feel like writing when it gets dark and there's no one else around
>Its alright

>>6388763
What are you doing?

>>6388818
Talking about Chinese cartoons for children in an online anonymous adults literary cafe; you wouldn't understand, it's very new.

Same with me OP except I dream if getting rich and fugging supermodels / jailbait nonstop. I just need a Lamborghini tbh, and I would slay

>inb4 someone tells me that I'm pathetic and the Hegelian dialectics are the pinnacle of life

>tfw your mom doesn't let you live the literary lifestyle

>>6388922
>but mooommm
>don't start that shit with me out in public, those shoes are way out of your price range, let's check at walk mart instead
>god you're always getting in the way of my aesthetic mom, I hate you
>If I hear any more lip like that out of you today we're canceling your trip to the post office to pick up that total tundra whatever book

>>6388508
T-thanks anon

>>6388834
Y-you're very new.

>>6388939
>Total Tundra: Return of the Boogaloo.

>>6388763
whoa nice recs anon

>>6388207
>tfw not a unique special snowflake

I mean I knew I couldn't be the only man giving fake interviews but hearing it from another just makes me feel meh. Im glad lit is just me samefagging all day and Im alone here

I mostly give interviews on morale and how everyone should live their life. Many time at tv and some at magazines and shit.

Why do private thoughts repeat around the world? At least we could have gotten that one but no, no chance on being individuals

>Majored in english minor in philosophy
>work at starbucks
>Try to avoid talking to people as I find it's easier if I convince myself they're all aspects of my psyche
>Boss tells me to be more outgoing or she'll fire me
>next day ask her how she's doing
>"I'm doing good"
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>6388207
>tfw can't make friends because you go to such efforts to maintain your identity of aloof intellectual superiority
feels bad man

>>6388241
>everyone must have secondary reasons for what they do
>no one is sincere
>every action is a play
>probably to get me

>>6388763
FUCK, I missed the rec train!

>>6389401
>Eng/Philosophy

come on now

>>6389444
I don't agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your trips while you say it.
Checked.

>>6389401
Why does that make you mad? You asked a bullshit question and got a bullshit answer.

>>6389390
>Why do private thoughts repeat around the world?
That's called "culture," people having been doing it for like 8,000 years at this point. This doesn't have to invalidate your individuality. Thinking that it does is evidence of a simplistic worldview.

>>6389437
And the only friends you make you probably can't stand, right? Because they're also pretentious assholes.

>>6389401
>Majored in english minor in philosophy
What were you thinking?

>>6389401
>restaurant job
>boss asks me to be more personable with customers - ask them how they are, how did they enjoy their meal, wish them a nice day
>start asking those exact questions, saying those exact words
>just repeat them with a smile
>within a week, boss stops me to tell me I've made a huge improvement
>"really like what I'm seeing out there, getting great comments"
>tell her "great"
>keep doing it
>felt nothing before, felt nothing after, felt nothing since

>>6389522
try putting some pebbles in your shoes.

So its lit just filled with undereducated waiters that read on their spare time?

>>6389551
No, over educated working class slobs.

>>6389551
Yes, of course.

>>6389568
>>6389573
I believe getting rich must be really easy but we are just missing something here, finding it is the key to this shit.

Obviously working isn't it

>>6389480
>Why does that make you mad? You asked a bullshit question and got a bullshit answer.
I don't care about the quality of the answer. The grammatical error set me off. Superman does good; I am doing well.

>>6388207
I've read essays where authors have q&a interviews with themselves. Its very interesting stuff, especially if its from early in their career.

>>6389590
When I finish that novel everyone will throw money at me, good luck I rehearse all my future speeches every night.

>>6389614
Maybe we get together at those round tables they do every once in a while

>>6389623
I'm so gonna Foucault your Chomsky ass. But when the interviewer asks where we started and I vaguely mention that it was a dark place of the internet we'll secretly become best friends.
I've seen in in my minds' eye and so it shall happen.

>>6389601
Maybe she believes she's doing good, though. You know, working that bullshit job, feeding hungry customers, keeping the wheels of society turning, etc.

>>6389631
But this place isn't that dark. I know the other anon said "muh individuality" but I feel Im going to make it and I know you feel the same so maybe someone is fucking up or worse yet both of us are fucking up

>>6389638
She's taught him to be a better worker, that's doing good to him. He was saying she liked you more and you go and get amd about it.

>>6389536
I didn't mean to sound like I'm complaining. It was just funny to me that how little resistance I experienced

>>6388229
I fucking loved the Darren Shan books when I was a kid, especially the vampire saga one. Does it hold up at all?

>>6388207
>tfw i'm the same
>tfw i think up what responses i'd give to interviewers all the time if they'd ask me how i came to be such an extremely talented musician
>tfw i'll never become more than mediocre

>>6389501

but it's ok if you're planning on going to law school, right?

>tfw have fantasy "Nerd-Convention Q&A panel" sessions in my head where all my adoring fans ask me questions about my works
>tfw coming up with "behind the scenes" shit and rough-drafts for shit I haven't even written yet.

"...And that was the first draft I had of Odda's character, where she and Rill weren't sisters. I struggled with that for a while, trying to decide if they worked better as simply friends or if they needed to be something more for the story I wanted to create. It was sometime in November or December of 2018, I can't remember which, where I finally decided to stop beating around the bush and just make them blood-related. But that was hardly the most profound change I made between drafts, I originally planned to open the book during the Light's Festively, rather than a few days before it, but then...."

>>6389568
this

>work in upscale restaurant
>everyone is so normal
>don't know what to say to people half the time but I smile and I'm not ugly so everyone likes me)
>think about books
>all I think about is books

>>6388939
Holy shit man, I actually went with my mum to the Post Office to pick up the first Tundra book after having lunch with her. Your post gave me the heeby jeebies up my spine.

>>6388207
This, and also conversations with my dream lover in which I'll get all existential about my 'work' and she'll reassure me about how brilliant I am and how much she loves me and my 'work'. In fact, despite having a functioning social and academic life at the moment, I live through all of my days pretending there's some sort of soulmate constantly at my side, talking to me, laughing with me. My friends and family catch me zoning out or chuckling at nothing every so often, but not enough for me to be thought of as the lonely weirdo I probably am.

>>6390807
You can start your work now, you know. The lover will have to come later.

I'm convinced I'm going to be rich and succesful. Here's why: I used to adopt a devil may care stance on fame and success. I had and still have a goal, and some of the cylinders started firing, I had some success.

So now I've got a taste for it and I'm ravenous. I want a house in Malibu, I want fuck you money, I want reservations wherever I go.

As I said at the start, I'm convinced I'll get it.

"Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved."
- Albert Camus, Notebooks (1942-1951)

>>6389522
Why would you expect to feel anything? Part of your job is to deliver bland platitudes, and you're now doing that. I guess it can be nice to be emotionally engaged/happy in your work, but it's hardly a requirement or even an expected consequence of being a waiter.

>>6390826
Thats what haunts me as I said before, maybe there are like 20 anons as convinced as you and me. Someone is going to fuck up. I'm going to keep trying anyway.

Good luck anon.

I do that all the time too.

Not really surprised other people do it, I guess anyone that's a twinge narcissistic would.

>love movies
>enjoy writing screenplays
>would like them to be produced
>don't want fame
>just want to be on the production side of things
>realise I'll never be in the movie industry
>realise the hobby I enjoy the most is a total waste of time
>realise I'll spend my entire life as a consumer rather than contributing
>tfw

I wish I had no aspirations.

>>6390335
How about you try writing something with those ideas you just randomly brought up?

>sit alone in study at night
>work on my writing and submit it
>get acceptances and payments
>go to bed and sleep the sleep of the justified

>>6388207
>imagine myself doing an interview with Charlie Rose over my groundbreaking works

>tfw some of said imaginary interviews feature me laughing with interviewer about how I used to have imaginary interviews like the 'real' one I'm having and I tell others like me, /lit/izens mainly, to keep imagining Sisyphus happy and they'll make it just like I did

>>6390989
Wreck

>>6391000
Wonderful trips, I'd love to be interviewed by Charlie Rose. Him or Nardwuar, even though I have zero music-related ambitions.

>>6391009
>tfw Anthony Fantano will never skype with you about the historical aspect of music as art and how it intertwines with painting and narration as bourgeois productions.

>>6389602
Could this be a good writing exercise or a way to write shit about yourself that even you don't even fully understand?

The only reason I'd ever want to be famous is to post stuff like this online. He may be pointlessly antagonistic and contrarian most of the time but sometimes it's just comforting to know there's someone successful out there with a similar world view.

>sit alone in study at night
>finish work and submit it
>receive acceptances and money
>go to sleep happy

>>6391400

>what work?
>what acceptances?
>how much money?

>lying on a peruvian internet auction site

wow

we are all losers

>>6391880
Nope, just you. I'm really going to make it.

>>6391927
puff, you're gonna eat my dust!

>>6391931
I'm not joking.

>>6391936
None of us are.

>>6392151
That's the scarier part.

>>6390807
>tfw i pretend to be some kind of lonesome wise man who has no need for companionship
>tfw i feel the feels every evening

These kind of threads are one of the few generals/non-intellectual ones that don't descend into utter shit-posting. I like these threads, they're cosy.

>>6390335

I have the same kind of delusions, but about my two-guys-on-a-couch video game youtube-show that I still believe I'll someday make.

I watch the Game Grump panels and basically jerk off, imagining myself up there, making people laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfgLgfCMegw

My fantasy starts with me seeing a lively /lit/ thread about my latest book. I'd adopt a trip and confirm it on my Twitter, then hold a Q&A session where I humbly admit my shortcomings as a writer and partake in friendly banter. /lit/ would respect my laid-back ways and turn me into a maymay.

>>6395322
Okay none of the others feels hit me as hard as this one, but god damn do i know this feel.

>don't want to be famous or wealthy, but rather obscure and having just enough go be happy, have a house, and go to national parks and stuff
>still want my work to be published under a pseudonym and entered into the Western canon, or at least considered important
It's not about the fame or the money, it's about doing something and knowing people like it.

>tfw have lost the habit of writing everyday
>tfw slowly starting to lose the habit of reading everyday

It's like sitting in the middle of the road at night wondering why it has to be that the sidewalks on either side of you can only connect at dead ends.

>>6395322
>not just trying to buy drugs posting as anon

>>6392775
I think all the lonesome wise men feel the feels, they just learn to deal with it.

>See qt
>she is reading
>the lack of misery is what I think is happines.jpg
>fantasize about dissussing philosophy and science with her
>know name already
>find her social media accounts
>she has a tumblr
>....
>Talks about sjw crap
>feminist shit everywhere
>shes bisexual
>only talks about women
>I will never get to smash her ass then discuss existential theories

Ending it never looked so good.

>>6395181
those are some feels that hit too close to home. I always have this dream in the back of my mind of becoming the next JonTron on the internet, and I believe I have the charisma and sense of humour to do it, but I keep procrastinating it and I can't ever bring myself to start.... Maybe deep down I'm just scared that I could make something I'm totally proud of and have it go completely ignored. Maybe I'm even MORE scared of the fact that I'll make it and get instantly riddled with insecurity about how I'm not as "funny and charismatic" as I'd like to think I am. But most of all, maybe I'm MOST scared of succeeding and becoming a ridiculous narcissist who constantly googles himself and obsess over all the fan art and and praise, but equally is destroyed by all the criticism and hate that will equally appear.

>Talking to girl I kind of know
>She only reads fantasy and sci fi
>She asks me what I'm reading
>Unfortunately I happen to be reading The Conspiracy Against the Human race, but I tell her because why not
>She asks what it's about and I tell her
>She asks if it's supposed to be funny or if it's serious

>>6395879
Women will never understand...
;_;

>>6395643
well it seems you can write, anyhow.

go get em tiger.

>>6395658
ha HA! i also read taipei anon! well post'd

>>6390335
stop trying to write sci fi, write lit fic about sci fi writers

>>6389522
Your job is to be boring with a smile, be happy you're being paid what many endure -without choice- daily.

>>6395845
Don't put her on a pedestal, what she does that puts you off makes her degenerate, create your own meanings, they are your opinions, find someone like you and die happy with them by your side- them caressing your cheek as you draw your last cold breath.

>>6396074

you are the worst kind of person

>>6396082
thank you, want to go into further detail or is it just because I rule my own life?

>>6390807
>and also conversations with my dream lover
I always do this in my head with girls I know who seem interesting and who seem like they can be bred to have "good taste" but I always decide it won't work out perfectly and I just stop liking the girl

Man, I don't even want to "make it." I just want to finally fucking finish something and have it published, and have one or two people kinda like it, and die forgotten. I want to be like the old author in the 2006 Norwegian film Reprise, whose only two apparent fans are the protagonists who are inspired by the old forgotten author's work and write big novels

>tfw I'll never be able to prove wrong those kids in middle school who laughed at and ridiculed me when they stole my notebook full of writing and started reading it aloud to everyone at lunch

>>6389401
>Majored in english minor in philosophy
Oh shit, that's what I was planning to do. Pls tell me why it's a bad idea. Save me from my ignorance.

>>6390878
I didn't expect anything, the opposite, that's what I'm saying. the request and the change were as far from inconvenient as can get, but equidistant from any feeling of benefit or enjoyment. The anon I replied to and anons like him I've seen complain about minute social adjustment, it's not an experience I've had

>>6396006
I had lots of tasks, about half of them involved anything interpersonal. your preaching is unnecessary and not very astute

>>6390745
same but i think of boobs, all I think is boobs

>>6395845
those girls are the easiest if you have any kind of game

i had a sjw tumblr bi girlfriend once. she used to always rant about how she hated white men and hearing them tell her what to do. but i was a white man and in the bedroom she would do literally anything i would tell her

>>6397529
not that guy but i majored in philosophy and english and I am unemployed and have it really difficult trying to find a decent job that isn't in the food or service industry

>>6398570
Well, getting a job isn't a concern for me, since I'm already pretty decent at art, and confident that I should be able to support myself through freelance in a year or two. I'm honestly kind of clueless about what to do after I graduate this summer, and I guess I'm hoping that by pursuing the things that I'm interested in I'll meet people who I can have some kind of meaningful relationship with, and maybe learn something about myself in the process. Do you think that studying lit and philosophy helped you with that at least?

>tfw just want to have a one-room loft in some city, have enough money to eat and drink, and all the paper and pens I need to write
>tfw at the moment this seems like the most impossible thing for me to acquire.

Sometimes I wonder when I crossed this line from once believing that I could do anything to now not being sure I'll have my neck above water come next year.

>>6388207
I feel like I'm a talented writer but I'm scared of rejection and responsibility. I've psychoanalysed myself well enough, I always write a lot mentally but I put very little effort into literature despite wanting to.

>>6388229
I liked the vampire shit.

>>6395322
Shit anon.

>>6398555
women do tend to be masochists in general

I think I've seen statistics somewhere that feminists tend to be more likely to actively be sado-masochists who strongly prefer maledom like 87% I think I saw

>>6389551
And cinema ushers.

Give me understanding, a basis of
The world, and those in it. No, rather put
My mind at ease, cool the membrane, calm the
Senses which drive me mad, foaming, at the
Palace of Raj, the Paris streets, my, my
Give me something to quantify this life
Give me, give me, give me, rightness will come
Prevail, right? Elsewise the meal would be a
Meaningless plate, and if it was why I
Would plead the Second- I haven't, oh well
No other choice but to look, probably

>>6398710

>getting a job isn't a concern for me, since I'm already pretty decent at art, and confident that I should be able to support myself through freelance in a year or two

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The only thing I've read this year.

>>6401094

Why?

>>6400483
How's it going Movie Theater Lad?

>>6401085
Cunt, you do not know him. You do not know his story.

>>6403677

>support myself
>freelance

Those two in the same sentence make it hilarious as fuck.

>torn between two programmes
>leaning slightly to A
>B offers me massive scholarship
>A not nearly as much
>honestly just relieved to have it decided for me by factors beyond my control (would be totally irresponsible not to accept B)
>finally email A with my difficult choice
>click send with a real sense of gravity and finality
>email two hours later: "What if we gave you [scholarship that brings it back on par with other programme]?"

>>6388207
I have always had an intuitive feeling that I will never write anything worth it's weight and that I'm going to be a forever alone till I eventually shoot myself in my mid 40s.

It's like I can actually visualize it happening.

>>6404228

Shouldn't you be ecstatic?

Now the program you wanted for quality reasons is just as affordable as the other one, no?

>>6404217
Once you get decent at art and find that freelance gets too frustrating you can always find a job in the entertainment industry. Better say good bye to your creative freedoms if that's what you're going for.

>>6404228
toss a coin.
thus it is no longer within your control again.
normally as soon as you toss the coin you release what side you hope it lands.

i swear by this method

>>6404276

Staving Artists have always been the only "true" artists.

>>6397518
>12 years old, destined to be rich...but how
>i know, a book!
>start writing uber cringe finalfantasyesque adventure novel that will be ten years in the making but spare me life of menial labour
>get home one day and brother is scoffing and sniggering, he's found the hiding place of my master piece which is now a couple hundred pages long
>begins to read aloud
>i-it's just english homework
>later, ashamed, i throw it away along with literary dreams
who am i kidding, it would have been shite anyway

>>6389522
>tfw no cutie helpers are outgoing to you when you buy teas and coffees

>>6388207
write about it

>>6391347
He's on that Jim Carey, Billy Corgan, post-fame agony wave.

>>6404283
Well, that's where my question comes in: I think that to create true art you need to confront yourself with the world, you need to seek out meaningful experiences and confront yourself with new contexts. Is studying lit and philosophy really a good way of going about that? I just don't know.

test

>>6389669
>She's taught him to be a better worker, that's doing good to him.

ideology, my got

>>6388207
>everyone here has dreams
>I don't even have goals or ambitions

just feel like a shell of a man

>>6404358
yeahh man you need to be a cool travelerr mountain hiker or like a workin factory man drunk or a drug addict living in paris to write truuue art

>>6404271
He never claimed the former was of better quality.

>>6406202

No, you just need to be more concerned about something else besides hunger, thirst, and boredom

>>6388207
have you tried writing instead of daydreaming?

>>6388229

Why does this board necessitate ego, whilst holding a firm belief against freewill. Quite the anomaly.

>>6391347

How does it get worse?

>>6397518
That picture is quite sad. I feel bad for the lad.

>>6397518

At least your feet were comfortable through the torment.

>>6400264
How old are you? I'm currently in the "feel like I can do anything" stage and I'm wondering when it'll turn. All adults say it happens.