/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15428608]

What is the happiest and most life-affirming shit you've ever read?

[Anonymous No.15428612]

nothing

[Anonymous No.15428616]

The Pleasure of Anal Sex with Men by Jack Mehoff

[Anonymous No.15428650]

>>15428612
fpbp
literature only makes you more depressed

[Anonymous No.15428657]

>>15428608
Mein Kampf

[Anonymous No.15428677]

>>15428608
Gospel means good news

[Anonymous No.15428793]

>>15428608
Leaves of Grass
On the Road
Dharma Bums
Iliad
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Don Quixote

[Anonymous No.15428801]

>>15428793
>leaves of grass
Honestly most of the stuff by the transcendentalists makes me feel like I need to forgo society and go live a hobbit style /comfy/ life somewhere.

[Anonymous No.15428807]

Siddhartha?

[Anonymous No.15428843]

>>15428608
Nietzsche

[Anonymous No.15428869]

>>15428608
Race crime statistics.

[Anonymous No.15428880]

>>15428608
cannery row by steinbeck, i felt like a million bucks after finishing it

[Anonymous No.15428887]

love in the time of cholera

[Anonymous No.15428967]

>>15428843
unironically yes

[Anonymous No.15428980]

The Holy Bible
The Holy Quran

[Anonymous No.15428991]

>>15428616
>Jack Mehoff
Surprisingly believable, I'm sure there are plenty of unfortunate guys named like that.

[Anonymous No.15429007]

the art of racing in the rain

>tfw a doggo will never propel you to a higher level

[Anonymous No.15429031]

>>15428980
>if you don't believe in YHWH (tribal war God of Israel) you'll burn for eternity
>life affirming

[Anonymous No.15429082]

>>15428980
Absolutely life-denying.

[Anonymous No.15429138]

>>15428616
Chuckled heartily irl

[Anonymous No.15429173]

>>15428793
>Don Quixote
How the fuck is don Quijote a life affirming or happy book lmao? Did you even read it completely? It's an extremely pessimist and sad book.

[Anonymous No.15429208]

>>15428608
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot and the subsequent books in the series. They are the memoirs of a country vet in the 1930s and they are absolutely some of the most comfy and wonderful books I've read. It really shows how life can be beautiful. I read them every year. Oh and the audiobooks are great also.

[Anonymous No.15429209]

>>15429173
Because at the end of the day, dude, he really went for those windmills.
And I see Cervantes’ farcical approach as more than justifying the minor obligatory death scenes, scenes where reality intrudes, etc. The critique of the fantastical in turn opens up its higher possibilities

[Anonymous No.15429255]

>>15429208
oh that sounds so comfy ty for the recommendation

[Anonymous No.15429268]

>>15428608
For me so far it has been the Tao Te Ching. I read it so much that I memorized big parts of the particular translation. I really think philosophy could have called it quits when Laozi rode off on his donkey.

[Anonymous No.15429280]

>>15429268
>laozi sounds like lousy
>confucious sounds like confusion
Those chinamen philosophers just can't catch a break

[Anonymous No.15429291]

Middlemarch
It is a crime that everyone has not read it

[Anonymous No.15429294]

>>15429031
>>15429082
It's not like most people on the back of this Earth still pray to this God every day or anything. Jfc... :3

[Anonymous No.15429299]

>>15429294
Make a Vocaroo

[Anonymous No.15429307]

>>15429255
Yeah man np, this is also a rare case when I would recommend the audiobook over the book. The narration is excellent and really captures the charm of it all.

[Anonymous No.15429308]

>>15429299
https://voca.ro/2KQwybXkTJr

Here, that is the sound of my gf sucking my dick.

[Anonymous No.15429312]

>>15428608
I’m honestly a democratic socialist or whatever it’s called (I like Sanders and agree generally with pretty much everything Chapo Trap House says) and one of the biggest reasons that chuds piss me off is they intentionally try to poke at the sleeping bear that is black America and black people more globally. I don’t know how you can look at black men and not view them as pretty much superior to whites in every way. They’re stronger, bigger and more composed than us and less prone to weird cringey behaviour. Like 99% of the alt right is guys who are insecure about black “superiority” and athleticism. It’s Freudian. They’re the closest thing the planet earth has to a legit master race (definitely not a bunch of doofuses in lederhosen) and it would be best to not provoke them. Normally I wouldn’t care if the chuds did this, you know get blacks to massacre them, but sadly I’m also white and I don’t want to be lumped in with these retards.

[Anonymous No.15429327]

>>15429280
True, but if the simple man didn't laugh, it would not be the tao

[Anonymous No.15429345]

>>15429308
Yeah, I know, you’ve only posted this, what, five times now?

[Anonymous No.15429353]

>>15429345
I'm just joking man, relax. I'm eating candy. Warhead gummies.

[Anonymous No.15429385]

Five Meditations on Beauty, François Cheng

[Anonymous No.15429407]

>>15428608
>life-affirming

[Anonymous No.15429415]

>>15428608
The Myth of Sysiphus.

[Anonymous No.15429422]

>>15428980
>Death cults
>Life affirming
By their very definition, no.

>>15429294
Not an excuse, canker-sore

[Anonymous No.15429454]

>>15428657
unironically this

[Anonymous No.15429464]

>>15429312
>americans in charge of shitposting

[Anonymous No.15429729]

>>15428807
Is this really uplifting or just a meme? I liked steppenwolf and glass pearl game but hated demian. Will I hate this too?

[Anonymous No.15429768]

>>15428608
inspirational quoteposts on some chick's tumblr ca. 2011

[Anonymous No.15429794]

>>15429173
kek you didn't get it, did you? Do you read the most literal interpretations into every novel you read?

[Anonymous No.15429802]

>>15428608
>life-affirming

[Anonymous No.15429804]

>>15428650
for you

[Anonymous No.15429811]

>>15428608
Leviticus.

[Anonymous No.15429823]

The poems of Ryokan and Gensei

[Anonymous No.15429900]

>>15428608
Gargantua and Pamtagruel
funny but also there's bloomer social commentary and characters are so nice as people

[Anonymous No.15429907]

>>15428608
My favourite book 'In Tune with the Infinite' by Ralph Waldo Trine
https://sacred-texts.com/nth/twi/index.htm

[Anonymous No.15429911]

“One for the morning glory” Was a comfy high fantasy that I still love
“Dictionary of the Khazars” was so interesting that it made me happy to try and decipher is secrets

[Anonymous No.15429969]

>>15429911
>Khazars
Oy vey

[Anonymous No.15429980]

>>15429208
My parents dog that they got when I was still in high school got put down today, and your recommendation reminded me again and now I'm sad again.

[Anonymous No.15429989]

>>15429911
based Pavic poster
he's a slavic borges, more intense and earthly

[Anonymous No.15429994]

>>15429980
I'm sorry anon, my cat died a few weeks ago and it's been a pretty sad time for me. I hope things get better for you. Those books really are pretty good though.

[Anonymous No.15429998]

Is nietzsche life affirming?

[Anonymous No.15430008]

>>15429994
Sorry about your cat anon. I might get the book for my mom to read. She majored in animal science before having me and knew a lot of vets.

[Anonymous No.15430012]

>>15428608
Robert Walser

[Anonymous No.15430018]

>>15429989
There’s a passage in there about words not being created by men but rather snatched from other men’s mouths and chewed until they are stale and nothing left of them and spat out upon the ground, it really stuck with me. It’s too late or I would post it instead of this stupid rambling post

[Anonymous No.15430029]

>>15430008
Your mom might get more out of it than others because he's sometimes pretty in-depth when talking about operations and stuff.

[Anonymous No.15430057]

>>15430029
Cool, she's taking this pretty hard, so I think I'm going to go ahead and do that. Thanks anon.

[Anonymous No.15430084]

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Overman -- a rope over an abyss.

A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going.

I love those that know not how to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers.

I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers, and arrows of longing for the other shore.

I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to the earth, that the earth may become the Overman's.

I love him who lives in order to know, and seeks to know in order that the Overman may hereafter live. Thus he seeks his own down-going.

I love him who labors and invents, that he may build the house for the Overman, and prepare for him earth, animal, and plant: for thus he seeks his own down-going.

I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to down-going, and an arrow of longing.

I love him who reserves no share of spirit for himself, but wants to be wholly the spirit of his virtue: thus he walks as spirit over the bridge.

I love him who makes his virtue his inclination and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more.

I love him who desires not too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for one's destiny to cling to.

I love him whose soul is lavish, who wants no thanks and does not give back: for he always gives, and desires not to keep for himself.

I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favor, and who then asks: "Am I a cheat?" -- for he wants to perish.

I love him who scatters golden words in advance of his deeds, and always does more than he promises: for he seeks his own down-going.

I love him who justifies the future ones, and redeems the past ones: for he is willing to perish through the present ones.

I love him who chastens his God, because he loves his God: for he must perish through the wrath of his God.

I love him whose soul is deep even in the wounding, and may perish through a small matter: thus he goes willingly over the bridge.

I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgets himself, and all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going.

I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart, however, causes his down-going.

I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the dark cloud that lowers over man: they herald the coming of the lightning, and perish as heralds.

Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the Overman!"

[Anonymous No.15430089]

Stoner

[Anonymous No.15430101]

>>15429173
It's not faggot, even if he was a crazy man for believing so much in his ideal he was still loved and cherished by everyone in the end. and also HE DIDN'T DIE that was necessary for cervantes so that no copycats could write apocrific sequels as has happened before the second volume was finished

[Anonymous No.15430105]

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

[Anonymous No.15430120]

Take the religious pill.

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!”

[Anonymous No.15430131]

>>15430120
>Catholic
Yikes

[Anonymous No.15430133]

Shit, I just read the life affirming part and skipped over "happy" in your question, op. Its absolutely not a happy book, his accounts are devestating, but the strength of the author in face of hell on earth is admirable and indeed life affirming.

[Anonymous No.15430142]

>>15430105 shit, I skipped over the "happy" part of the question of op, the book contains devestating accounts, its not happy at all. I just meant that the strength of the author in face of hell on earth is admirable and life affirming.

[Anonymous No.15430145]

>>15430133
About mans search for meaning

[Anonymous No.15430183]

>>15430131
>being so humble that you can kiss commoners feet
you wouldnt understand

[Anonymous No.15430242]

>>15428608
Honestly, more than any book, it's that fucking long meme made by this board about the people here trying to begin their journey to knowledge and wisdom, it had that "at last i truly see" panel and a number of panels with people showing their deep admiration for philosophy and science and reinforcing the need to pursue wisdom and climb on the shoulders of the great men that came before. I'm sorry I hadn't save it. Maybe someone will post it.

[Anonymous No.15430296]

>>15430183
Holy cope

[Anonymous No.15430300]

>>15428843
Based.


>I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.

[Anonymous No.15430313]

>>15430296
It's a beautiful gesture to elevate the lowest over the highest, obviously the specific context sucks.

[Anonymous No.15430315]

>>15428608
>life-affirming

[Anonymous No.15430335]

>>15428608
Spinoza’s Ethica for non-fiction
Conrad’s “Youth“ short story for fiction, or possibly Moby Dick
>>15428612
>>15428650
Cringe depressed faggots, you’d probably be sad without literature too

[Anonymous No.15430347]

>>15430300
>Amor fati
I just cant to bring myself to amor fati

[Anonymous No.15430665]

Count of Monte Cristo
yeah thats right

[Anonymous No.15430837]

>>15428616
The Pleasures of Receiving by J. Erkhoff

[Anonymous No.15430843]

>>15428869
in what way

>>15428657
in what way

>>15428807
in what way

[Anonymous No.15432761]

>>15428608
TBK

[Anonymous No.15432765]

>>15428608
The Gay Science

[Anonymous No.15432770]

>>15428608
>life-affirming
wouldn't touch such a shit with a pole
but all these self-help spiritual bullshit books fall into that category sold mainly to gullible roasties

[Anonymous No.15432774]

Your diary anon desu <3

[Anonymous No.15432839]

Why does everyone on this board fetishise misery and have an aversion to anything remotely uplifting?

No great work of art is without a mixture of both suffering and joy.

[Anonymous No.15432870]

Chestertons essays

[Anonymous No.15432884]

>>15432774
My diary is super cringe depressive writing

[Anonymous No.15432885]

>>15428608
Not sure what was the happiest, but I feel like Dostoievsky's Dream of a ridiculous man is near the top.
For a refreshingly naive take on education there's also Paul and Virginie.

[Anonymous No.15432891]

>>15432884
And I still love you

[Anonymous No.15432900]

>>15432891
You dont know me.

[Anonymous No.15432903]

>>15428608
I just read a poem by Gustaf Fröding, called En Morgondröm (A Morning Dream), in it he describes the adventurous side of sex in a way that captures the drunkenness of passionate love, and how that love leads to the creation of a child in a way that kind of celebrates the masculine and the feminine coming together, it's really life affirming to me.

[Anonymous No.15432916]

>>15432900
Yeah haha. Dont look out of your window.

[Anonymous No.15433133]

>>15432916
Which one are you?

[Anonymous No.15433159]

Three men on a boat. fucking love it,

[Anonymous No.15433391]

The Years of Lyndon Johnson

[Anonymous No.15433395]

>>15433133
The one humping your lawn

[Anonymous No.15433775]

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

[Anonymous No.15434007]

>>15430101
>HE DIDN'T DIE that was necessary for cervantes so that no copycats could write apocrific sequels as has happened before the second volume was finished
That's such a superficial reading of the book jesus christ you are an idiot. The book is not depressing because of the fact that don Quijote followed his ideal and was passionate about it, it was sad because he was constantly punished for believing in something in a world which could not believe any more.
Most people had no reason for treating don Quijote as they did, many of the characters did believe too that errand knights existed and were just too cynical to accept him.
What is sad is also not that don Quijote was a "madman", the world was as mad as he was, and he was also conscious that he was percieved as such by people.
Don Quijote truly wanted to help and bring good to the world, but the world was such shite that they punished him for it, for the ideals be held, bringing him to the point of having to renounce them and then losing all meaning in his life, and then dying.
But you would be too much of a midwit to see that.

[Anonymous No.15434119]

>>15432761
Alyosha’s dream of the wedding has brought a tear to my eye every time I’ve read it

[Anonymous No.15434149]

>>15428608
The Everlasting Man and The Bible

[Anonymous No.15434189]

>>15430242
Someone please post this.

[Anonymous No.15434214]

>>15428608
Anything by John Muir. His nature writing is the GOAT. I'm surprised he is never mentioned on this board.

[Anonymous No.15434223]

>>15434214
Any recs of his?

[Anonymous No.15434247]

>>15434223
My First Summer in the Sierra

[Anonymous No.15434402]

>>15428807
based

[Anonymous No.15434439]

>>15434007
What exactly did Don Quixote do throughout the book that helped people? He was a good friend to Sancho, yes, but most of the events in the book portray Don Quixote as an insane madman rather than someone who should be lauded. There is a tragedy to his character sure, but on the other hand, I think you can also say that he got what was coming. I didn’t really think that Don Quixote was that sad of a book when I read it.

[Anonymous No.15434540]

>>15434007
so it's like The Idiot?