/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12813947]

When did being genuinely /lit/ become so un /lit/.

It’s so easy to make fun of anyone who has a “passion for books”. Why did we let irony culture eat up our favorite pastime?
>be me
>bring 2-3 books with me for a 12 hour plane ride
>get made fun of religiously by my peers who are bringing nintendo switches, laptops, etc

It’s almost taboo to be /lit/. Idk about you guys but i’m made fun of it constantly, even how i dress which is LitFa approved

[Anonymous No.12813985]

Nothing done sincerely is cool nowadays; if you read the books ironically you would be accepted, just the same way the grown up manchildren, if pressured, will distance themselves from their videogame-playing. To take a positive position is unthinkable--one must always hide behind a mask and laugh as it is attacked, attacking others' masks in turn and laughing all the while. You're problem is that you live in the ethical mode while surrounded by would-be aesthetes.

[Anonymous No.12814029]

>>12813985
fuck this fucking gay earth. i hate to say this pol tier meme but holy shit we live in a true clown world. what you say is true as fuck, i have the word Mask tattooed on my arm because that whole “wear a mask in public” thing resonates with me to the core. pray for me anon, pray for us

[Anonymous No.12814054]

>>12814029
newfag

[Anonymous No.12814056]

>>12814054
keep crying for me, retard

[Anonymous No.12814063]

>>12813985
One must distinguish between the phony, superficial irony of people who think the word is equatable with "sarcasm," and the genuine, impenetrable irony of someone who must hide behind many masks or hazard their very spirit. It's analogous in distinguishing between types of liars; there are the stupid, weak, false liars who lie for material gain, and those who deceive even those closest to them because they must, to save their lives.

[Anonymous No.12814185]

>>12814063
Very correct. In the Kierkegaardian view, the one is in despair at at not yet having a self, while the other is despairingly unwilling to be himself.

[Anonymous No.12814192]

>>12813947
how old are you? is this a school field trip or something?

[Anonymous No.12814623]

>>12813947
I’m astonished that you would allow yourself to be made fun of by someone that plays a fucking Nintendo switch. I mean cmon dude that’s low hanging fruit if you can’t defend yourself maybe you are autistic and that’s why they are masking fun of you.

[Anonymous No.12814632]

People are shocked when you want to do something that isnt staring at your phone. I think its the result of living in a society

[Anonymous No.12814637]

>>12813947
Read Society of the Spectacle

[Anonymous No.12814687]

>>12813947
one time i was seeing this illiterate girl who somehow had a degree in english who criticized me for "consuming literature" and criticized me for talking about philosophy since i wasn't "a philosophy professor" and "wouldn't [i] feel better if i got to talk about philosophy all day for a living," as though i could just magically become a fucking philosophy professor; and even when she saw my cock, she was like "you should do porn," and i was like "HOW AM I GOING TO GET INTO PORN," and she was like "just know someone in the industry". this fucking idiot thought she was elite because she had a degree, she had no understanding of alienation. i can't just magically become a philosophy professor, being self-taught. i can't just magically become a porn star because i have a big dick. sorry, for some reason i'm still mad about this. i hope she doesn't somehow read this. i don't know why i'm still mad about this two years later, i only saw her for like two weeks and i didn't even like her. probably because that's the last girl i saw romantically whom i slept with
and then, what, i am to feel "psychotic" for being more than i am reified as?! i'm not allowed to have non-monetizable passions? everything i am must be subordinated to capital and the law of competition? ugh

and people telling me to write! there's no value in writing for the sake of writing, writing when one has nothing to say, no idea. i'll write when i know enough! i don't want to write for the sake of writing and publish something erroneous and immature. i still have a lot to learn, and when i have the mental strength to do so, and feel the urge, then i will write something. my poetry is shit. i don't know if i ever will write something. other minds are more powerful than mine, which is why i read! because i have so much to learn! i am not so narcissistic and egoistic to think that i am some genius. perhaps i lack the confidence to write. or i'm just too stupid or lazy. but i think i am learning. i don't think i am "consuming literature". just because one reads doesn't mean one must write. there is a difference between a reader and a writer. i don't think i am a writer. i don't know if i want to be a writer. it seems vain and egoistic to think of oneself as a writer and dismiss the thoughts of superior minds. on this point it is harder to defend myself.

[Anonymous No.12814715]

>>12814687
>criticized me for "consuming literature" and criticized me for talking about philosophy since i wasn't "a philosophy professor" and "wouldn't [i] feel better if i got to talk about philosophy all day for a living,"
She was embodying Nietzsche I see

[Anonymous No.12814719]

>>12814687
Well said, anon

[Anonymous No.12814725]

>>12814715
In the sense that she was ironically mocking him?

[Anonymous No.12814727]

>>12814054
>proving exactly his point

[Anonymous No.12814728]

>/fa/

Just don’t go anywhere on this site except here. There’s a reason in the past two weeks you’ve seen unironically large amounts of different women posting. It’s because this is the best board on 4chan. No one else has as successful of meetups like we do.

There is nothing like /lit/ because people read literature when they are adults and not children. JUST STAY LIT MY MAN!!!!!

:3

[Anonymous No.12814748]

Who cares, if you like it, you like it. Don't feign superiority with your hobbies, that's the ultra cringe incarnation of "stop liking what I don't like." Maybe you're putting off an autistic tinge of patronizing body language or in the way you talk about your interests. If you truly wish for others to read more, I suggest doing it more sincerely and without indignation that what you like isn't "cool." Don't get me wrong, there will always be people that talk negatively no matter what, but if you bothered with those people, you will never live happy

[Anonymous No.12814753]

>>12814727
tell me why I called him a newfag. You should be able to do this.

[Anonymous No.12814761]

>>12814715
yeah she claimed to be reading beyond good and evil (not sure when, since it turned out she was seeing like four other guys and also was a literal whore) so i read all of nietzsche's work (besides dawn) to own her
to quote byung-chul han, the nietzschean übermensch are the heideggerian They

[Anonymous No.12814769]

>>12814719
thanks anon

[Anonymous No.12814770]

>>12814748
Does it give you a feeling of superiority to tell others not to feel superior?

[Anonymous No.12814772]

>>12813947
What does a LitFa look look like?

[Anonymous No.12814785]

>>12814770
No I'm hoping to share some love. I'm sorry if I came off like that.

[Anonymous No.12814801]

>>12814772
devlishly handsome, depressed, mezmerising yet hollow-empty eyes, tall and broad shouldered, slow walking, shy demeanor

[Anonymous No.12814802]

>>12814785
You're the only one who can't see through your dissimulation.

[Anonymous No.12814810]

>>12814801
>oiled beard, depressed, hollow-empty eyes, 5'10 and obese, slow walking, shy demeanor

[Anonymous No.12814820]

>>12814810
Your Rong

[Anonymous No.12814838]

>>12813947
>do something abnormal that makes you stand out
>get mocked for it

Wow, you could have seen that one coming? What the hell were you even expecting? Was everyone on the plane supposed to start sucking your dick for reading Infinite Jest? Get over yourself, faggot.

[Anonymous No.12814846]

>>12814838
retard you better be mocking the same ironic shit i am talking about

obviously i didnt do that, if anything i tried to hide infinite jest, i literayy get picked on like its a fuckig 1980’s hollywood movie pushing nerds into a laucker

[Anonymous No.12814847]

>>12814802
Maybe being indignant over one's perceived haranguing is the real dissimulation. Unless you're telling me that op is correct to feel the way he does?

[Anonymous No.12815014]

>>12814748
What if it's not so much I think of myself superior for reading literature per se, but rather seeing the people around me who enthusiastically consume tabloid politics, capeshit, sitcoms and vidya with abject horror and despair after becoming blackpilled from reading Debord and Baudrillard?

[Anonymous No.12815117]

Thank you for realizing, anon. There is hope

[Anonymous No.12815129]

>>12815014
I don't have the answer to that. I think you can still enjoy other forms of media without feeling guilty of being brainless. I also think if you lead a good, meaningful life that you can learn to avoid dwelling heavily on other people's vices and imperfections. On the other hand, if you truly wish to help people turn their life around then maybe you can do something positive like making a group or creating social media presence/awareness or trying to influence people to do those things instead of perhaps just letting nihilism grip your heart and paralyze you

[Anonymous No.12815233]

>>12813947
It depends on who you’re hanging out with. Your friends probably aren’t very artistic or educated and just wanna watch dumb shit on TV and listen to Calvin Harris which isn’t very cool either

[Anonymous No.12815642]

>>12814687
What girl fucking tells their boyfriend they should do porn lol

[Anonymous No.12815674]

>>12813947
>my peers
You're still in school, aren't you?
>dk about you guys but i’m made fun of it constantly, even how i dress which is LitFa approved
Yeah, I'd gladly make fun of you too

[Anonymous No.12815682]

>>12815642
she wasn't my girlfriend

[Anonymous No.12815744]

>>12814185
There's plenty of people with no self who are wonderfully in love with others that appear to be just like them though. It's like Jim and Pam from the office. The two people are usually both making childlike gestures to each other and they seem like the same person yet they're totally ignorant and they almost always think philosophy is worthless

[Anonymous No.12815788]

>>12815744
one time i was reading and some guy said to his girlfriend or wife or whatever "why is he reading a book, is he gay?" and his wife or girlfriend or whatever was like "i think it's nice he's reading a book" or something. just to give an example of how fucking stupid people are.
>it's gay to read a book or think about anything other than your dick and sex

[Anonymous No.12815809]

>>12815744
>There's plenty of people with no self who are wonderfully in love with others that appear to be just like them though. It's like Jim and Pam from the office.
I don't watch that show or any tv but I learned from /tv/ that actress is apparently obsessed with the actor in a really pathetic way and he doesn't give a fuck

[Anonymous No.12815810]

>>12815788
>"why is he reading a book, is he gay?"
No way this fucking happened. This is too goddamn funny.

[Anonymous No.12815816]

>>12815810
lmao it actually did happen
people are really that stupid

[Anonymous No.12815823]

>>12815810
actually he might have called me a fag... just some insult at my sexuality for reading a book. it's amazing, all people do is judge your sexual orientation, it's insane. i want to kill them all

[Anonymous No.12815829]

>>12815788
where the fuck do you live? The only thing that's ever happened to me is people strike up a conversation about what Im reading, which is how I met a fair amount of people in my late teens early 20s.

[Anonymous No.12815847]

>>12815829
vancouver, this was in coquitlam though. no one has ever talked to me while i was reading. also, not to be racist, but it was an east indian man... east indians are mentally retarded

[Anonymous No.12815850]

>>12815816
>>12815823
I like to fuck with close friends I've had for years by telling them I'm bisexual and watch their behavior toward me change overnight. Nothing other people do is worth taking seriously

[Anonymous No.12815888]

>>12815850
yeah, they're stupid... all one can do is try to stay above it

[Anonymous No.12815896]

>>12815788
>why is he reading a book, is he gay?
LMAO
M
A
O

[Anonymous No.12815903]

>>12815888
It has nothing to do with their stupidity or your intelligence. You will die. Why are you making it hard on yourself while you're here?

[Anonymous No.12815905]

>>12815850
>I like to lie to people and imply I shoot meth and molest kids
>shockingly, they treat me differently
we live in a society

[Anonymous No.12815911]

>>12815903
that's a good attitude to have
people make me feel bad about myself
i have no self-esteem and introject their hatred

[Anonymous No.12815919]

>>12815788
>"why is he reading a book, is he gay?"

so is that how you find a /lit/bf

[Anonymous No.12815927]

>>12815905
I don't think the two cases are really comparable. If I could tell them I'm black, native American, or gay, I would, but I can't get away with that, so I use bisexuality. Don't you enjoy mocking the pretense to unbiased and complete tolerance?

[Anonymous No.12815933]

>>12815919
i don't know, i'm straight

[Anonymous No.12815944]

>>12815933
>i'm straight

i dunno about that anon, you were reading a book

[Anonymous No.12815960]

>>12815944
lmao

[Anonymous No.12815963]

>>12815927
>I don't think the two cases are really comparable
They're the same example, not two different ones. The average person isn't anymore tolerant than in the 80s when you could call someone a retarded faggot. Maybe they lie to themselves but mostly it is just a fucked up emperor has no clothes scenario where everyone in society is assuming everyone else is fine with everything and wants to save face
>Don't you enjoy mocking the pretense to unbiased and complete tolerance?
Not really because it isn't genuine and never was. Even the true fanatics don't believe in anything resembling "true tolerance" which is self-evident in how they conduct themselves. Its really just depressing. Some guy in this thread is talking about some indian manlet calling him a faggot for reading a book in what was until recently a european colony. The absolute state.

[Anonymous No.12815993]

>>12815963
What's the best way to get a pretentious person spilling drool? Adopt a similar pretense and set them to work, like a wind up toy, talking about things of which they have no knowledge. I get similar enjoyment from pretending to be bisexual and watching liberal friends try to hide their surprise and discomfort. I say things like, "you're not allowed to call yourself 'bisexual' unless you've actually had sex with a man." That really gets them going. You take things much too seriously.

[Anonymous No.12815998]

>>12813947
unfortunately 90% of these /lit/tards don't even read. Or, if they do read, they read Gravity's Rainbow so they can feel "smart" and a part of the /lit/ clique. Which means they don't actually enjoy reading.
On the other hand, if you do actually enjoy reading, you wouldn't spend much time talking about reading. You'd get your enjoyment out of reading, instead of telling people about it

[Anonymous No.12816026]

>>12815993
We're saying the same thing, but at the end of the day you're the one telling people you're a faggot for laughs. I hope someone posts the webm of that guy basically punching two other dudes simultaneously in the ass to his elbows so you can maybe get some perspective on how badly you have been btfoing yourself without realizing it.

[Anonymous No.12816046]

>>12816026
Thinking of a friend of mine sincerely thinking of me participating in something like that is absolutely hilarious. I think we're just on different levels.

[Anonymous No.12817178]

>>12813947
>become so un/lit/
when the volume of nonreaders surpassed that of readers on this board. The true irony of this situation is multi-fold- of all the aspects my favorite is perhaps this one: that complete ignorance of a subject takes precedence over knowledge by the mere fact that its 'carriers' comprise the majority. A sad state of affairs, but also timeless. The challenge is to keep one's wits while sailing through all the bullshit. This situation is legion in all fields and a potential pitfall in all social arrangements that espouse democratic ideals.
t. slightly left of center

[Anonymous No.12817191]

>>12813947
I keep my reading secret, anon. Surprised that the majority of the few I let into my apartment don't even ask about the books that line my walls. A few do read titles and ask questions but I generally just shrug them off and talk about college basketball or something.

[Anonymous No.12817672]

>>12813947
Don't stop anon. Be the sincerity you wish to see in this world. You will feel excluded but at the end if it all, you will feel certainty in your life. Fuck the sheep that tell you how to live.

[Anonymous No.12817759]

>>12817672
motivational and based

[Anonymous No.12818025]

>>12814847
You’re being memed

[Anonymous No.12818065]

Sounds to me like your friends are pushy autists, not only should they not care, they should keep it to themselves.

[Anonymous No.12818162]

>>12814846
>laucker

[Anonymous No.12818224]

>>12814687
>writing for the sake of writing is gay af
>look at this dumb bitch, trying to get me to be productive with my philosophy hobby

Bruh did you miss the contradiction there

[Anonymous No.12818231]

>>12818224
why don't you go suck dick for money anon? since you have the mind of a bitch

[Anonymous No.12818324]

>>12815944

[Anonymous No.12818366]

Curiosity is more of a passion than a hobby, and takes on quixotic undertones wherever the predominating or popular culture is overtly hostile to inquiry. Despots, demagogues, and trollish royal hypocrites of every stamp, hate and fear the aptitude, and slight it at every turn to the applause of resenting and vicious crowds they resemble or dissemble to, eager for brutality. I am too old, sanguine, erotically self-sufficient, and consequently hermetic in habits, to fall for any company (tricks & leprechauns excepted) lacking the aptitude. I want as little as possible to do with people who would rather be deceived than informed because I can't bear to manipulate others to their ruin or disadvantage. But it is a passion that has its own advantages, a collaborative magic, a magnetism only of and for the amiable, an identifying precision attractive to those who prove trustworthy when the going is as hard as it can be, and delightful to be near when it is easy. Of course it can take diabolical turns. We spymaster gossips love to pump our neighbors & colleagues about what's going on, tiptoe into HR departments after hours and lift salary lists, render to transparency what was opaque--sea cucumbers and Davos creeps getting the same treatment. One can't rely on the Supreme Botched Job to humanize the species, though he has his place underneath this lens.

[Anonymous No.12818422]

>>12816046
You’re right. He’s the faggot

[Anonymous No.12818507]

>>12813985
Yes, they demand that you feel ashamed over everything and anything.

[Anonymous No.12818516]

the irony culture is horrid desu

[Anonymous No.12818541]

>>12814761
>to quote byung-chul han, the nietzschean übermensch are the heideggerian They

[Anonymous No.12818549]

>>12818541
I forgot to add my question:
Where is thid quote from and how are they alike?

[Anonymous No.12818582]

>>12818366
>One can't rely on the Supreme Botched Job to humanize the species, though he has his place underneath this lens.
If you are being genuine about your passion for curiosity then I hope you will elaborate some more on this greentext without being facetious and sate my curiosity and ignorance.
What do you mean? "Supreme Botched Job"?

[Anonymous No.12818653]

>>12813947
literature has always been seen as an elitist, effeminate pastime.

[Anonymous No.12818683]

>>12818549
kys brainlet

[Anonymous No.12818701]

>>12818653
t. man who bases his self worth on access to a vagina

[Anonymous No.12818863]

It has nothing to do with irony. If you were in a social circle/context where other people read (or at least don't regard reading as peculiar), nobody would've bat an eye. But you're in a social circle where people play nintendo switch. That's a type of person same as the person who brings books to a flight, characterized by a set of values, habits, etc. As opposed to lit/unlit, sincere/ironic, etc. One person might bring their laptop to do work, another to play minecraft. Ask yourself what kind of values and habits either case reflects, and then ask yourself the same about your reading. The answer might help you to understand why you find yourself in a particular social environment.

[Anonymous No.12818880]

>>12818863
games of intense skill are patrician, it doesn't matter whether they take place on a screen, on a physical board, or directly between persons in the form of disputation.

[Anonymous No.12818909]

>>12818880
There are many ways to interpret that post, and many responses to make, but the basic fact is that videogames are a waste of time. Two years of FPS and isometric strategy, tops, between 11 and 13. Anything more than that and your childhood's a bust.

[Anonymous No.12818933]

>>12818909
that's just your prejudice and inability to see hidden value. do you think "moving pictures" are solely for the "uncultured masses"?

[Anonymous No.12818970]

>>12818909
I think we established in another thread that RPGs between the ages of 4 and 9 are useful for building literacy.

[Anonymous No.12818991]

>>12818933
I just suggested there's a window of time suitable for playing games and a preferable genre. If you're into "hidden values" you could perceive an implication that some games are worthwhile

[Anonymous No.12819004]

>>12818970
I'm sure that's true. Show me the list of RPGs you came up with

[Anonymous No.12819028]

>>12819004
Pokemon
that's the list.

[Anonymous No.12819083]

>>12819004
When I was like 10 I played final fantasy VIII and my grandpa was furious because he refused to believe I was reading the pop up dialogue as fast as I was for a while and "wasn't even playing the game" until I lore dumped on his as a dumb kid lmao. I was already pretty solidly into reading chapter books for a few years by that time though.

[Anonymous No.12819364]

>>12818582
God, in the Gnostic sense that the figure would have to be evil or inept or some slapdash mix of both, for creation to be as it evidently is. See also Twain's bitter essay and Swinburne's light-heartedly bitchy poem about the subject. As a figure of fiction, it doubtless spawns much irony about the human circumstance in nature, for those who aren't particularly keen on observational cosmology. I am also alluding to Goethe's "let them have religion" stance when it comes to those who aren't good at art and science.

[Anonymous No.12819383]

>>12819364
> I am also alluding to Goethe's "let them have religion" stance when it comes to those who aren't good at art and science.
Both Isaac Newton and Werner Von Braun were religious. You are a faggot. Go read An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity by Swift.

[Anonymous No.12819422]

>>12813947
What?
Who would seriously be insulted for reading? Where do you live and with what company do you keep?

[Anonymous No.12819437]

>>12814029
>i have the word Mask tattooed on my arm because that whole “wear a mask in public” thing resonates with me to the core

[Anonymous No.12819441]

>>12814770
So this. Like hes Mr. Reason, and 1-love.
>>12814785
I was you three years ago. It is a suboptimal strategy

[Anonymous No.12819475]

why are you people such humorless cunts?
it's not an 'irony poisoning' problem, your friends are just faggots

[Anonymous No.12819516]

>>12819383
Neither, I'm sure, were dogmatic and unsophisticated in the sense Goethe intended. These things go by degrees of subjection to received opinion, the opposite of curiosity. As for the more intimate particulars of Von Braun's intellectual scope as a scientist, and emotional intelligence as a human being, it's instructive to imagine him in the same room with, say, Niels Bohr.

[Anonymous No.12819520]

>>12819437
finally someone took the bait

[Anonymous No.12819550]

>>12819516
>Neither, I'm sure, were dogmatic and unsophisticated in the sense Goethe intended.
Isaac Newton literally believed that he would divine the end of the world from the bible and his mathematics were a paltry concern to his christian occultism. How do you not know this?

[Anonymous No.12819559]

>>12819383
And those not gifted in art or philosophy turn to science.

[Anonymous No.12819635]

>>12819550
Newton's occultism, broadly biblical as it was, obsessive as his occultish pursuits in alchemy were, were both far removed from the the average Christian's faith in literal or institutional interpretation, whatever the sect. I file it more under a lion's delusions of omniscience than a sheep's obliviousness to the difference between fact and fiction.

[Anonymous No.12819653]

>>12819516
>>12819635
>everyone I begrudgingly respect wasn't actually christian
How do you even debate this lmao. Would you also deny von braun was a nazi?

[Anonymous No.12819750]

>>12819441
Yeah and you lost and crawled back , giving up

[Anonymous No.12819879]

>>12819653
Respect is not the issue, nor even admiration, nor my own acquired taste in conduct, which is post-Protestant in many respects. (Johnson, and Chris Hedges, are examples of avowedly religious writers I love for their ethical stance.) The issue is the will to discovery, as a defining antagonist of dogma. For instance, it doesn't take a genius to infer that Von Braun had firm Nazi convictions that his shift to the American scene did little to revise, or that Newton took a certain glee in seeing forgers go to the gallows, but some heroes come more flawed than others, whatever endeavor they were best at. Likewise, you can't say that the Church's official line on Galileo, circa Galileo, reflects the same motive as his.

[Anonymous No.12819895]

>>12819879
>therefore, newton, galileo, mendel, and von braun were not christians
okay

[Anonymous No.12819995]

>>12813947
I think the problem is that the passion for reading serious /lit/ got lost for a few decades and while we are now at a point where people are disillusioned with media and are more receptive to literature; there isn't a bedrock of reading for people to revolve around. Literature is culture and culture revolves around being able to engage in something on a social level and talk about it with other people. There isn't anything that's able to pull that off except for schlock like Harry Potter or Teen Dystopia #49762. You really only get that environment in uni (and only in the right majors) and book clubs are often a little too structured for most people (imagine only talking about albums with your friends by appointment, and you don't get to pick the album).

Though my situation is a little different. Whenever I read in pubic, people are interested in what I'm reading though they often don't read themselves. They seem like they want to read but either don't have the time to do so or they feel lost like they don't know what to read. Literature is a huge place and most people don't know where to start. They also don't know what others read so picking a book that will actually provide cultural common ground with others is a complete crapshoot.

[Anonymous No.12819996]

>>12819895
>therefore nuance and division in psyche doesn't exist, and all coins of Christendom's realm are exactly equal and unitary as caricature would have it.

So much for discourse.

[Anonymous No.12820003]

>>12819996
lmao