/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18538436]

Why the fuck do people read fiction? It didn't happen, so why should I give a shit? Read a non-fiction or a good biography about someone from history, you'll get more out of it.

[Anonymous No.18538460]

>>18538436
Because women buy the books.
Seriously most best selling novels are written by miserable writers who themselves on record whine about the emotional handwringing formulaic pulp they put out to make a living.

[Anonymous No.18538466]

>>18538436
>You'll get more out of it
Life is long enough to read both, Anon
Plato was inspired by Homer

[Anonymous No.18538467]

Filtered

[Anonymous No.18538475]

Imagine an unimaginative retard. Try to picture one with your mind's eye.

[Anonymous No.18538484]

>>18538466
Plato was also essentially writing fiction. Everyone should at least read Aristotle's poetics so they don't spout room temperature takes about literature like OP.

[Anonymous No.18538508]

>>18538466
Not really you can't read more than 600 books in one lifetime, assuming you dont read for the sake of reading

[Anonymous No.18538629]

If you’re satisfied by real life then congratulations, you don’t and shouldn’t read fiction.

[Anonymous No.18538730]

>Why the fuck do people look at paintings? It's not real, so why should I give a shit? Just look at a photograph, you'll get more out of it.

[Anonymous No.18538742]

>>18538508
I read like 500 in the last 5 years

[Anonymous No.18538761]

>>18538508
I read like 200 in the last 5 years

[Anonymous No.18538767]

>>18538730
Based and Walter Benjamin pilled

[Anonymous No.18538811]

>>18538460
I am not a woman and I read fiction

[Anonymous No.18538824]

Shakespeare, Melville and Dostoevsky wrote fiction.

[Anonymous No.18538830]

>>18538508
>you can't read more than 600 books in one lifetime
If you read one book every week (which anybody on this board should be doing at LEAST), you'll hit 600 in eleven and a half years.

[Anonymous No.18538840]

>>18538484
>Plato was also essentially writing fiction
idk man it might be fiction in technicality, but in spirit most of it was non-fiction.

[Anonymous No.18538843]

>>18538840
I guess it depends on whether dialogues in general count as fiction

[Anonymous No.18538848]

>>18538840
In spirit, all great fiction is non-fiction. The best fiction tells truths about what it means to be a human being on planet earth.

[Anonymous No.18538858]

Reading fiction for the aesthetic enjoyment of it is fine and understandable. What I don't understand is why people read fiction to get and understand concrete lessons for life, politics, and the sort. Isn't reading non-fiction a much more effective and direct way to improve one's understanding of the world? Not to mention thst it is much harder to be swayed by crappy arguments in non-fiction than in fiction.

[Anonymous No.18538870]

>>18538840
That's the most retarded sentence I read on /lit/ today

[Laura Numeroff !BmHtx5LcGM No.18538871]

>>18538436
>thinks he reads about what actually happened
>none of his non-fiction mentions the times people go poopy or jack off
ha, checkmate

[Anonymous No.18538877]

>>18538858
Fiction is primarily intuitive rather than analytical. It is getting a whole picture and from it sensing the minutiae. Non-fiction is primarily analytical, and gives you all the minutiae from which you create a conception of the greater whole. It's just different styles of thinking, anon. People's brains work differently.

[Anonymous No.18538981]

>>18538761
That's a huge difference to mess up on buddy. Are you sure it's not 20?

[Anonymous No.18538998]

>>18538877
Historical fiction and non-fiction novel would be two counterexamples to each case. I think the binary between fiction and non-fiction is not described well as a manner of writing style. It should be strictly whether the subject matter concerns events that are real or imaginary. Any human writing will have elements of truism, by nature of language being tautological

[Anonymous No.18539013]

>>18538981
I mistyped 500 and removed the post.
>Are you sure it's not 20?
Fuck off

[Anonymous No.18539020]

Because fiction is more beautiful.

[Anonymous No.18539628]

>>18538998
Totally fair, I spoke too broadly for sure. In my own defense, after allowing for some marginal exceptions, I think the meat of my point still stands.

[Anonymous No.18539634]

>>18538436
"Reading fiction is pointless", a.k.a "I'm too stupid to come to my own conclusions"

[Anonymous No.18539649]

>>18538508
You can comfortably read 40-50 books a year, having read 500 books by the time you're 25 or 30 is easily possible, given that you started reading seriously in high school.
Are you dyslexic or retarded?

[Anonymous No.18539654]

>>18538730
based picassopilled
>>18538436
Literally why would you read the story of someone real? Where's the enjoyment in reading how someone got cucked by his wife and fell into the depths of despair, knowing you could and probably will tread the same path one day?

[Anonymous No.18539656]

>>18539649
>Are you dyslexic or retarded?
I know a dyslexic girl who loves to read, so it should be the other one

[Anonymous No.18539660]

>>18538508
Imagine being this retarded. People read for enjoyment. I don't watch TV, I don't go out and I'm not interested in drama series, do you sincerely think it's impossible to read hundreds of books a year in this situation?

[Anonymous No.18539676]

would technology exist without fiction?

[Anonymous No.18539681]

>>18538830
one book a WEEK? Am I an incredible brainlet just now coming to this realization? 500-pagers, taking me about 20 hours, included?

[Anonymous No.18539684]

>>18538436
>Why the fuck do people read fiction? It didn't happen, so why should I give a shit?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12743473-the-storytelling-animal

[Anonymous No.18539740]

>>18538508
You can easily read 600 books in the span of 4 years, and that's if you're a casual reader. See picrel
>>18539013
>>18538830
>>18539649
These anon proved it empirically too.

[Anonymous No.18539750]

>>18538508
You can easily read 600 books in the span of 4 years, and that's if you're a casual reader. See picrel
>>18539013
>>18538830
>>18539649
These anon proved it empirically too
>>18539740
Kek I'm a retard. If I was smart I would have used my energy to read a book.

[Anonymous No.18539771]

>>18538436
Religion/mythology-> pre-1800 philosophy -> INSERT HUGE GAP HERE -> Other pre-1900 non-fiction -> pre-WWII Fiction -> INSERT HUGE GAP HERE -> everything else not mentioned before or after -> Feces -> Anything produced post-WWII -> history written after the fall of rome

[Anonymous No.18539855]

>>18539750
really wish that calculation included comprehension time variability

[Anonymous No.18539969]

>>18538436
>muh utility
Ok worker bee

[Anonymous No.18541084]

>>18538436
>It didn't happen
Which?

[Anonymous No.18541890]

>>18538830
Takes me a month to read a 300-page book, though

[Anonymous No.18541987]

>>18538436
>Why the fuck aren’t people austistic like me?

[Anonymous No.18542318]

>>18538436
read what you want OP. talk to any successful leaders and ask what they read, novels are always a part of it

[Anonymous No.18542326]

Tom Peters on Haruki Murakami

[Anonymous No.18542332]

>>18542318
OP feels like being an anon forever. Leave him be!

[Anonymous No.18544313]

>>18538436
>why do people read fiction
for fun you absolute spastic

[Anonymous No.18544317]

>>18538436

[Anonymous No.18544335]

Why the fuck do people read non-fiction? It already happened, so why should I give a shit? Read a fiction about something that hasn't, you'll get more out of it.

[Anonymous No.18544581]

>>18544335
Came here to dunk on OP just like this
Good work anon

[Anonymous No.18544591]

>>18544335
This
just fucking pay attention during history class, it'll cover anything worth learning about if your education system is worth anything, and if it isn't, then it's already too late for you so you might as well just give up

[Anonymous No.18544966]

>>18544591
Okay let me just go back in time and learn about the Holocaust again

[Anonymous No.18544980]

>>18544966
kek

[Anonymous No.18544982]

>>18544966
Oh sweet anon, you won't have to go back in time to learn about the Holocaust

[Anonymous No.18545012]

>>18538436
Based, seeing all the people in this thread cope with the fact that they actually let fiction occupy their mind is hilarious, anyone who bases anything on fiction (for example their political ideology) needs to be told that their fairytales doesn’t automatically apply to reality

[Anonymous No.18545358]

>>18538466
>homer
>fiction

[Anonymous No.18545387]

The problem is your attitude. I'm sure you could "get more out of" other things besides reading too.

Fiction is about experiencing beauty, wisdom, entertainment, escape

[Anonymous No.18545420]

>>18538436
I used to hate fiction too and stuck to history.

I guess fiction is about the raw communication of ideas in their pure form. When fiction is just made up stories and made up emotions, it sucks.

[Anonymous No.18545505]

>>18541890
10p/day on average? Either you don't like the book or not putting much effort (which afterall goes back to not liking it)

[Anonymous No.18545520]

Fiction brings beauty into your life, it's necessary for the soul. Dopamine addled junkies like you OP who cannot sit and enjoy a story are too dumb to be on this board, please leave. Go back to plebbit and jerk off to subatomic particles and speculative universe theories. I'll go read War and Peace.

[Anonymous No.18545522]

>there are people on /lit/ RIGHT NOW who thinks that fiction really exists
>there are people on /lit/ RIGHT NOW who aren't aware that reality can literally be transformed by your imagination

[Anonymous No.18546043]

>>18545520
>Go back to plebbit and jerk off to subatomic particles and speculative universe theories. I'll go read War and Peace.
>Implying great Russian writers of XIX century weren't constantly up to date with the last scientific breakthroughs
Uh, you didn't read Resurrection?

>Simonson, in his rubber jacket and rubber overshoes
fastened with a string over his worsted stockings (he was
a vegetarian and would not wear the skin of slaughtered
animals), was also in the courtyard waiting for the gang
to start.
>He stood by the porch and jotted down in his
notebook a thought that had occurred to him.
>This was what he wrote: “If a bacteria watched and examined a human nail it would pronounce it inorganic matter, and thus we, examining our globe and watching its crust, pronounce it to be inorganic. This is incorrect.”

---
>Long live the electricity of human thought!
"A Gentle Creature" (Russian: Кpoткaя, romanized: Krotkaya), sometimes also translated as "The Meek One", is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky written in November 1876.

Richard Caton (1842–1926), a physician practicing in Liverpool, presented his findings about electrical phenomena of the exposed cerebral hemispheres of rabbits and monkeys in the British Medical Journal in 1875.

[Anonymous No.18546390]

>>18538436
Read Borges, Schopenhauer, and go take a walk out in nature somewhere. It might click then. Or it might not, either way is fine.

[Anonymous No.18546394]

Imagine thinking all nonfiction happened

[Anonymous No.18546416]

>>18546390
>Read Borges, Schopenhauer, and go take a walk out in nature somewhere.
Also listen to something like these while walking in nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wry9G6rcdQw

[Anonymous No.18546420]

>>18538436
Keep your autism in check, buttboy.

[Anonymous No.18546460]

>>18546420
Be sure to check Nappi's Critique of Feminism too.

[Anonymous No.18546477]

>>18538436

Fiction improves empathy.

[Anonymous No.18546480]

>>18546460
What a sad woman. Has she quit the dirty business by now?

[Anonymous No.18546530]

>>18539750
>blocks your path
where do you think you're going with all those books, casual?

[Anonymous No.18546546]

>>18538436
The events of a fiction novel have as much impact and relevance to my life as that of historical events I never experienced

[Anonymous No.18546667]

>>18546480
I don't know. I never liked her too much as a pornstar, a bit too chubby for my likes. I googled her name and she got married less than a year ago with the dude she has been with for 10 years

[Anonymous No.18546728]

>reading anything
Are you such midwits that you can't think of things on your own? Why do you need to consume someone else's ideas? Just have those ideas yourself.

[Anonymous No.18546801]

>>18546416
No, do not listen to that while you're walking. It's a fine album, but the point was to take in the nature, enjoy the sounds already there, and contemplate without distraction.

[Anonymous No.18546805]

>>18546546
You are an NPC incapable of emphasizing with others since your mind and soul are completely under-developed.

[Anonymous No.18546967]

>>18546805
Nice place, sauce?

[Anonymous No.18546981]

>>18546967
but anon that's literally an NPC spawning zone

[Anonymous No.18547018]

>>18546981
Idk, it looks like an NPC wouldn't be able to create this
You definitely haven't seen where my sis lives
Literally heart-shaped photo frames with pics of her bf

[Anonymous No.18547052]

>>18547018
>photos of loved ones and coherent design
vs
>instagram neon and quirky trinkets childishly arranged

[Anonymous No.18547060]

>>18539750
Hey anon, do you use emacs for reading?

[Anonymous No.18547077]

>>18538870
I get his meaning, but I agree he communicated it rather unintelligently

[Anonymous No.18547086]

>>18538436

I got an idea: read the non-fiction theory of the Russian Formalists to get an understanding of the value of reading fiction.

[Anonymous No.18547399]

>>18547086
>read the non-fiction theory of the Russian Formalists

like whom?

[Anonymous No.18547410]

Imagine gifting 80 replies to a bait thread. I guess summer has come.

[Anonymous No.18548348]

>>18547060
I remember emacs being shit for reading pdfs, but they change. I'm so fucking surprised, and happy. I can read my technical books now.
gif shows off emacs for reading pdfs, and comparing it to zathura, sort of like sumtraPDF but more minimalist.
>>18546530
Let's say you're reading rate decreases due to reading books more closely (let's say your reading rate is 100 words a minute). 120,000 words is a book, than that's 1200 minutes a book. or 20 hours. You have 72 hours a week, and you can read a book comfortably.
Still, that books seems cool. Adding to the list

[Anonymous No.18548428]

>>18538436
All reading is fiction.

[Anonymous No.18548447]

>>18546967
Sperging out created this

[Anonymous No.18548451]

>>18547052
It was a space of much meme'ing and naked babes

[Anonymous No.18548627]

>>18548348
I discovered nov.el to read epubs in emacs and am trying to setup org-capture to make some vocabulary flashcards.
In my experience pdfs were bad too, I need to test it again

[Anonymous No.18548654]

I can't seem to find any worthy nonfiction to read.

[Anonymous No.18549340]

Why the fuck do people read? It didn't happen to you, so why should I give a shit? Go live an actual life instead of sitting in your mom’s house reading someone else’s life every week, you’ll get more out of it.

[Anonymous No.18549518]

>>18538436
I like creativity and world building, Escapism is a disease but explore fake worlds might make someone want to explore the world they live in more deeply.

[Anonymous No.18549695]

>>18538870
I mean, most of them are dialogues between people. Things that could have ostensibly happened, and could easily have been real anecdotes.

[Anonymous No.18549710]

It's because I'm lonely, I want friends, I want to know people, I want to know experiences, I want to have interesting and memorable conversations, I like the experiences of language itself, how it can be used and how it makes me feel, I enjoy experiencing the emotions that fiction arouses in me, I like the questions it makes me think about, the desires it arises in me
Those are my reasons in order of descending importance

[Anonymous No.18549715]

>>18549710
Wait the emotions part should be before the language part
Or maybe higher up idk, i'm confused

[Anonymous No.18549723]

It's one of those things like class consciousness, or the rejection of speculative genre hackery in general across all mediums. If you know, you know. It can be very hard to explain.

It's best to just give examples. If somebody reads high IQ fiction, you can almost guarantee they have the wherewithal not to fall for stupid shit like Q Anon or the bottom tier of political grifts in general. Correlation or causation? It doesn't matter, all that matters is the habits of the superior person, of which fiction is one. Smart people read fiction. It is up to you to be curious enough to figure out why and internalize it yourself, one cannot be simply told.

[Anonymous No.18549743]

>>18549723
>f you know, you know. It can be very hard to explain.
You don't know, you feel. That's why it's hard to explain, because it can't be explained. You just don't want to admit your actions are based on feelings.

[Anonymous No.18549748]

>>18549743
My actions are not based on feelings, I'm simply saying it's such a difficult subject as to be ineffable. Fiction is art, and art is just a way to explore things that we cannot pinpoint in an empirical way at the moment. The prose form of art has many benefits, from learning about cultures, to histories, to politics, in a way that is often more biting and incisive than a dry non-fiction text. So sure you can read a wiki article about Soviet Russia, but how to actually know what it was like? Read someone's impassioned story about it. Read Bulgakov or yes, even Rand's early novel about living in that time. In many ways it will be more illuminating than the dry facts.

[Anonymous No.18549750]

>>18549723
>class consciousness
I cringed.

[Anonymous No.18549755]

>>18545358
>Achilles
>Really superhuman
>Athena
>Really immortal
Get rekt fag

[Anonymous No.18549766]

>>18549748
Yes, they are. You still have no rationale for why you think or act that way, your entire post comes down to "because I feel that's the case." I'm not stating this as an insult. Read Nietzsche and realize there is nothing wrong with it, you just have to take the first step of admitting it (arguably the first step to overcoming nihilism in general, mind you).

[Anonymous No.18549767]

>>18549750
what's to cringe about, class matters for the left- or rightoid and ignorance of class is why many people believe in stupid shit like the american dream and toby keith songs.

[Anonymous No.18549771]

>>18538508
You are considering a far reaching idealistic metric. Consider friction and resistance inhibiting action:
You can listen to gay nigger radio or watch fat faggot television or listen to dumb stoner podcasts. Everyone else does. Now you decide not to. Now replace all those controllable minutes and influencable minutes that you're walking or on the move hands full of action with epic bard recitation. You have absorbed ancient Civilization through osmosis. Enjoy. Or bitch about winning a petty argument but you should enjoy.

[Anonymous No.18549772]

>>18549766
I literally explained my reasoning faggot. Novels can explain things similar to how parables work. Art stirs the imagination and brings up points that may not exist or be relevant in non-fiction.

[Anonymous No.18549782]

>>18538824
>>18538824
"Dicke Gay gay gay gay
succor of cock how I smoke
the man milk
in the jungles
of your crotch locks!"- Sonnet 54 from William Shakespeare's book of Shaking the Speare

"That whale represents my homoerotic sexual frustrations, dear reader. I want to make this abundantly and homosexually clear my reader" - Melville

"It's the Jews" - Doestoevsky

[Anonymous No.18550283]

>>18538436
I read about 50 fiction books per year and 2-3 non-fiction.

Recommend me some non-fiction, I'm currently reading a Did You Know facts book by Readers Digest and it's actually pretty awesome

[Anonymous No.18550400]

Don't read anything.

Just live.

[Anonymous No.18550455]

Because my world is better than REALITY

[Anonymous No.18550498]

>>18538436
Fiction is the best way to convey ideals. You create a situation where the answer to any conflict is what the author wants you to believe.

[Anonymous No.18550553]

>>18538436
That's what my grandpa always says. But the point of fiction isn't to technically educate you, but to develop you as a human being by introducing you to visions, concepts, and experiences that would be impossible or unlikely to happen in reality. Subhumans wouldn't understand

[Anonymous No.18550721]

>>18550553
>calling your own grandpappy a subhuman
you didn't get enough beatings growing up

[Anonymous No.18552061]

>>18549767
>everything left says is correct, everything right says bad
>people are just interchangeable bundles of superficial traits like race, gender and social class
I cringed.

[Anonymous No.18552974]

>>18542318
but they read more non-fiction though.

[Anonymous No.18552989]

>>18549767
Ah yes toby Keith, that's definitely the foremost example of dumb American pop culture

[Anonymous No.18553014]

>>18549723
>Smart people read fiction.
Proof? Non-literary smart people read non-fiction more than fiction

[Anonymous No.18553324]

>>18549782
Lol