/lit/ - Literature

Well you're on here being a faggot, which means you have some free time. Carving out an hour to reading isn't that hard. Just give up the other bullshit and be disciplined. It's not work, but you have to get out of the habit of wasting time you've currently built up for yourself.

>>7079727
theres not that much great literature dude itd take you 20k hrs max to read it all which is like two decades

>>7079736
For some reason I'm irrationally afraid of wasting time doing something I know beforehand is going to take up a large chunk of time; I'm afraid that carving out that time will prevent me from using it on something else equally interesting. Yet despite this fear of wasting my time, I do nothing but browse YouTube and 4chan. I don't know why I'm this retarded, or how I could fix it.

>>7079758
It'll grow though; so will all the other art forms. If I spent two decades straight reading through the finest before 2015, who knows how much content could've been made from then to 2035? That's what I'm afraid of. What if one of the selections I skip over would've been the best book I would have ever read?

>>7079761
You can change your thinking through habitual actions. If you can just force yourself to do it for a week, and then analyze the results, you'll have actual proof as to whether or not you benefit from using some of your time for reading (or whatever else). You may not even want to read daily. It's not like you have to. You might want to read every other day. But you won't know until you experiment and see what works.

>>7079774
So you're suggesting I force myself off for a week to experiment, and tweak my schedule based off the results?

tbh what I'm more worried is that i'm going to spend all my time reading books and then realize it was all a waste, they're just silly made up books, nothing but a way to pass the time, no real meaning, not noble, the human condition is just a sham that betas use to prop up their pathetic lives, etc.

>>7079785
Yeah. It's a learning experiment.

>>7079786
I don't feel as if I know enough to say this confidently, but I believe that furthering your own understanding is more important than getting laid, and the human condition means far more than a sham. However, I honestly can't say that for sure, and can't offer any reassurance off what are just beliefs for me.

Stop trying to get from A to B all the time and just enjoy existing.

>>7079791
Alright, I'll try it out. Thanks anon.

>>7079797
I'm afraid I'd get trampled if I did so.

I used to think the same until I realized how long life is; unless I die prematurely, I should be able to read everything I want to read if I keep at it for literally decades.

>>7079806
What age did you come to that realization?

>>7079761

This but I'm also afraid of trying to be completely productive by scheduling all of my time, even if it's scheduled free time

Reading everything out there is overrated.

It's far better to have a deep understanding of what you do read.

>>7079873
True, but when you start to move into a specific realm to gain an understanding in, you lose another due to that specification. That's my fear.

>>7079793
tbh I don't see how fiction furthers your understanding. fiction to me seems to be a testing ground to what is already in you. I read a tragedy and experience sorrow. I experience a tragedy and I will feel sorrow whether or not I've read it. maybe it can help you cope with it but I'm not that sentimental.
I can't discount the pleasures of the body, even though I'm a virgin who has no real interest in getting laid, because that's the only reality we have and ever will. what I'm afraid of is that I'll realize fiction is not 'true', it doesn't have a transcendental correspondence to reality, it's barely a shadow of it.

>>7079727
I don't read because I get an achievement for reading it all. I read because I enjoy it. Surely most of us would prefer there be an amount inexhaustible to one lifetime?

>>7079812
25

3 years removed from college, meaning 3 years of life lived on my own terms, meaning 3 years of feeling responsible for my experiences

>>7079950
That's interesting. I always thought of fiction as the fruits of someone else's experiences. Some string of events in some author's life collided to give them a new idea, and fiction is created off that elaboration. From that view, I've kept the impression that there's always something you can take from fiction. There's always some meaning that the author drew from the inspiration that drove them to write; otherwise they wouldn't have written. It lets me see fiction as a way to grow, reaching experiences I would've never reached in my normal day to day life.

>>7079894
"In the particular is contained the universal."
- James Joyce

Getting to the heart of something can be like getting to the heart of all things.

>>7079956
But what if... ... You're right, but... what if...

... Damn, you're right.

>>7079956
>>7079995

You guys give me hope. Thanks.

>>7079984
Reading fiction is like erasing yourself, replacing it with a more remote self, one that isn't exactly the author's, but comes from the language on the page. It's a mysterious thing, to get captivated in a way that your life is no longer unfolding in time. Writing is a very similar thing; at its best, it's a dissolution of the active, discerning self you have that is mediating your experience. Instead, it's an expulsion of culture and personal history, but not in the magically unique way you're treating it; sure, they're experiences experienced by a unique body and soul, but the literary process is – or, at least, when it's really good, should be – as self-less as we turn when we're really reading.

>>7079978
That's reassuring, thank you.

>>7080032
I get what you're saying, but fiction's never really been like that for me. What I've read has always been colored by my own perceptions and past experiences, and I can't avoid not only seeing myself reflected in any fiction I read, but also the author's views about whatever he or she is writing about.

Maybe we're both right? Maybe I've just read more books that have been crafted to reflect a message (trust me, I haven't read many books on my own) versus more of the literature you've read, within which the goal of the author has been to flesh out a scenario, rather than to get out their own interpretation of said scenario.

Most literature isn't worth reading so I'm not too upset that I'll never be able to read it all.
I should be able to read just about everything that I consider worth reading within my lifetime.

>>7079761

I'm in the same boat. I find it so hard to drag myself off of the computer. The internet has gotten me so used to instant gratification that I have a hard time concentrating on things like literature that require some work and patience in order to receive enjoyment.