/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15744117]

>When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.

[Anonymous No.15744142]

maybe if you read some YA shit. Good fiction is like a conversation. The author leaves things open to interpretation, there are ambiguities and puzzles that invite the reader to solve, and the reader can always refute what is being written rather than accept it at face value.

[Anonymous No.15744148]

“We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.”

[Anonymous No.15744158]

>>15744117
Based

I used to read a lot, but now only randomly. Fiction bores me, and I often find the train of thought of the author to be polluted by silly ideas and strange psychological weaknesses.

[Anonymous No.15744176]

The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen.

[Anonymous No.15744190]

we will what the will wills in the will will but wills will will the willing wills of wills, yet one willing an act cannot will the will - Arthur

[Anonymous No.15744212]

Yeah but I'm dumb an in need of guidance, especially so on ethics which is why I read people smarter and wiser than myself.

[Anonymous No.15744293]

This is a dilemma. I used to think all the time and write my most proficient thoughts down, thinking it would be something of merit. Then I read more and realized that it all has been said by someone else in a much more structured and eloquent way. Thus I stopped thinking for myself as I saw that you have to be a one in million genius to say something of merit, and even then it's probably nothing but a sophistic but lastly in vain variation of what someone else said.

[Anonymous No.15744298]

>>15744117
>tfw put down a book after being occupied with someone else's thoughts and find comfort in thinking to myself
Why is my personality type so based? Reading regularly is obviously a necessity, but as Schopie says reading for multiple hours solidifies your mind to an uncreative act of another.