/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20332880]

/lit/, help me please - I feel as if I've just awoken from a two-decades-long dream/night-terror that I spent as a stereotypical NEET raised by a bunch of NYC hicks.
I'm trying to 'take the red pill,' as in, actually understand and comprehend the goings-on of the world around me. I've been radicalized left and right, been through the mental health and legal systems, been through a lot.
Only in the last year, with my GF, have I started to really start learning about the world around me in a concerted, directed manner.
I'm currently reading pic related on the recommendations of the /lit/ chart "Start With the Bronze Age" and intend to move up and forward through history, reading the literatures of the different great civilizations, and building context to understand the writings of people such as Cicero, Macchiavelli, Aristotle, etc.
I'm painfully hyper-aware of my mortality, grieving all the time lost as a demoralized NEET consuming mind-numbing, low-brow media, and very regretful that I haven't already read things such as the Old Testament or Plato's Republic, Guenon, the Quran, Kvassir, Pynchon's books, McCarthy's bibliography, all this great stuff that is so awesome and beautiful.
Lately information overload has been a major issue for me, I'll maybe never get the chance to be a semi-NEET privileged college student with ample time and instruction as to when and how and what to read, and I'm somewhat anxious that I may be wasting time reading Samuel Noah Kramer and other outdated bullshit from the literal 1940s while the world is burning down around me.
What do I do? What should I read? I have more than enough faith in my own ability to learn and comprehend, but not quite enough faith in my ability to know where and when and how to START.
How do I give myself the best possible background in human culture and thought as it has evolved since the beginnings of recorded history, so I can understand the books I will forthcomingly read, and not be another soulless bugperson slaving away unwitting as to the beauty literature can offer me?
What do I read, and how?

[Anonymous No.20332887]

Here's hoping all the lugals here will extend me a helping hand and send along to being ready to understand shit like Julius Evola and Plato and etc.

[Anonymous No.20332898]

>>20332880
>>20332887
Are you the same person? Why would you complain that you are wasting your time reading Samuel Noah Kramer then want to help to be ready to read Evola (rough contemporary of Kramer) and Plato (died 5000 years ago)?

I highly doubt you are going to find anything that will prepare you for the shit show that is currently happening around the world. Here is the good news. Nobody on this board has the ability to impact what happens globally. Focus on your immediate community and the small things you can do to improve it. Read things that interest you without worrying about whether it will make you truly versed in Western culture.

[Anonymous No.20332907]

Am I misguided to believe that starting as early as possible (with Sumer and the Akkadians etc.) would best arm and prepare me to tackle such opuses as the Bible, the Greek literary tradition, the Romans, etc.? Is there some more tactful way of introducing myself to world literature, versus just starting as far back as possible and learning as much as I can?
Pretty cool seeing the process of the rediscovery of Sumer via people like Niebuhr and Rawlinson, and how legends and myths have been recombinated and telephoned around since Sumer and likely long before, pretty awesome looking into cuneiform and Sumerian linguistics, etc., but I'm feeling very old and senile already as a 24-year-old burnout from New York City. Just want to get some glimmer of divine understanding and truth before I die, and for once, feel as if I understand just what the hell is happening around me, and to me, to my country, my people/my society, you know the deal.

[Anonymous No.20332912]

>>20332898
All three posts so far save yours have been me. And alright, following your line of thinking: I'm an Italian-American descendant of tenement people in New York City. I live in Staten Island. I have a a background in linguistics, am a big Ted Kaczysnki/uncle Ted guy, speak about 5-7 languages to some extent via mostly autodidactic research, and am an antisocial autist with a pretty negative social history and lots of estrangement when it comes to family.
I've been to rehab, jail, and the psych ward by the way. CPTSD as well and a mood disorder.
What do you recommend I read?

[Anonymous No.20332922]

>>20332898
Also, you've got a good point. My shit's all retarded and my mind is all over the place. Evola and Aristotle/Plato whoever I mentioned have little at a glance to say to each other. Or do they? I guess what I'm really saying is I'd like for some more learned and versed individual to smack some sense into me and set me on a right path so I can stop floundering between the titles of a million books, none of which I can calmly sit down to read, because of information paralysis.

[Anonymous No.20332966]

>>20332907
>>20332922
If you are interested in philosophy I would try finding a book that briefly surveys western philosophy like "A New History of Western Philosophy by Kenny" From there you can get the broad strokes of the important moments of western thought. If there are any philosophers in the overview you find interesting you can then deep dive and read their writing directly. If after reading their writings you still want more you can then either go towards others critique on their writings or look to see who they inspired or who inspired them. While this theoretically spirals on forever, it is at least structured sorta and at least starts from a place that inspires you.

Personally my reading habit is I read books in the following order
Poetry
Non-Fiction
Fiction published while I've been alive
Philosophy
Classic literature

This way I don't burn out on a topic or feel like I've completely lost touch with modern times (like I did when I was reading nothing but ancient greek works).

[Anonymous No.20333878]

>>20332880
The book in general still holds up, so it's fine. The bronze age is far removed from our current era, it had to be rediscovered because of the bronze age collapse. So you will not see any transparent Sumerian influence, only their leftovers. Anyway, the world will burn down, but I think we're alright, no matter what you personally do if you're just some NEET.
You're worried too much about where to start instead of starting.

[Anonymous No.20333947]

>>20332880
The thing I most wish I had been told when I was feeling similar to how you seem to be feeling: reading/learning is not transcendence, it is not magic. Maybe you can learn some meditation techniques or something that will have a real impact on how you feel on a daily basis, idk, but I can tell you fairly confidently that the idea of any kind of enlightenment through knowledge alone is just a big ol' cope. You will never read the whole canon, because no one ever has or will until we can upload it all instantly to our brains or whatever. Just study things that seem cool, enjoy the process, give yourself a break when you need it, realize that you cannot force things through sheer willpower. I worry about the time thing too, but we all have however much time we are allotted by fate, and as I said there is no magical point of enlightenment, no finish line you have to reach before you die. Clearly you have personal issues, and I can relate; just realize that those issues may have something to do with your desire to believe in the perfection and opportunity offered by intellectual endeavors. Try to maintain relationships with people in as normal a way as you can, while not being unable to be yourself around them (keeping in mind that your idea of "being yourself" may be artificial and harmful, e.g. in the case of someone who contributes to his own alienation because he assumes "normies" who don't read /lit/ meme books will be unable to "understand him").

>>20332922
>information paralysis
Yeah I get this too, too much stuff available all at once. I've recently been trying to allow myself more leeway to bounce around between different books though, generally I end up becoming focused because of the desire to dig deeper in a particular one, or just the desire for the dopamine hit from finishing something. You can set limits for yourself, e.g. "I will only read this one book for the next hour", but that can defeat the purpose because, as I said above, it's ultimately only valuable inasmuch as it provides some sort of gratification, whether instant or delayed. So I guess with respect to that it's a matter of knowing yourself, specifically your future self, and making compromises between your future and present self. (Also tbqh based on what you said that sounds like manic symptoms, so maybe you just need the right meds? I have some degree of experience with, if not actually manic, at least hypomanic, or hypo-hypomanic or whatever, symptoms, as you can maybe tell by the fact that I'm echoing your spastic wall of text with one of my own). Anyway, I found your post relatable anon, you may not necessarily like what I have to say but perhaps it will help you someday - or you'll realize it on your own and look back and wish you had listened, as always seems to happen to me.

[Anonymous No.20334697]

>>20332880

Like the others say, find summaries to get an overview, then pick what appeals. I gradually came to learn 'what to read' by casually browsing /lit/. The introductions to a lot of classics help to explain 'where they are' in the grand scheme of things.

You should consider the process like completing the image of a jigsaw, with each book only giving you small part of a complete image. The individual pieces may only make limited sense, but as you gather more pieces, you will be able to start linking them together and each piece will help you to understand the other pieces in turn.

Works like Plato and the Bible are major pieces that link to hundreds of other works, so they are good choices. Going for Homer / Plato / Aristotle is a decent way to start, with works that connect to each other. Animal Farm, 1984, and Brave New World is another decent starting trio. The idea is to collect different 'lenses' through which you can see the world.

The /lit/ 'top 100' lists are a good place to start. Also take a look through Harold Bloom's Western Canon list. If you don't know what's 'good' to read, then picking anything on those lists is almost certain to give you something that, one way or another, will expand your understanding of humanity.

[Anonymous No.20334822]

>>20334697
>>20333947
>>20333878
>>20332966
Thank you, kind anons. Excellent and thoughtful replies; my question feels answered and now I can go back to reading - this time much more peacefully.

[Anonymous No.20335090]

>>20332880
>I've been radicalized left and right
It's not dichotomous, there are 3rd and 4th axes.

[Anonymous No.20335116]

>>20332880
Read Graeber. He writes in a way that's meant to be read easily, and his shit is dope.

[Anonymous No.20335213]

>>20332880
I refuse to help anyone who's been a /pol/tard in the past. Get cancer and die