/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2729247]

“Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes.”

I just stumbled across this quote by Schopenhauer. It's an elegant wording of a habit I tend to hold intuitively myself. I read only when necessary. I haven't read in weeks now. Feels good and clear.

What do you think about this approach towards reading, /lit/?

Also: inb4 "quoting a book written by someone else to say adapting others thoughts frm books r bad lol u fail"

[Anonymous No.2729256]

Hmm sounds like a good system, I might have to put it into practice. Though I expect my thoughts will dry up on a daily basis.

[Anonymous No.2729262]

i'm of average intelligence and what is this

[Anonymous No.2729264]

There is some truth to this, of course.

Any form of communication is but a symbol, and people are often better off devising their own content than relying on others' symbols. Actually, if independence, growth, and self-reliance are seen as virtues (which they are, in Western society), then anything that acts as a phyilactery for others' content (meanings, ideas, experiences) can be seen to be a bad thing.

Reading is a much better habit to have than, say, playing video games, watching TV or listening to music, however.

[Anonymous No.2729267]

I don't read exclusively for ideas, though. In fact a lot of the time I'm reading poetry and I just want some feels and vibes.

[Anonymous No.2729268]

>>2729256
Maybe because that's because you haven't let the well replenish itself in quite a while. Removing outside opinions (apart from people in your social life) can be very refreshing if you pull through with it.

[Anonymous No.2729270]

>>2729267
Don't you think secondary feels can be seen as the same sort of sin against the holy ghost as Schoppy put it?

[Anonymous No.2729272]

>>2729264

>listening to music
>somehow inherently a junk food habit

That's just stupid.

[Anonymous No.2729278]

>>2729272
>listening to music
>somehow inherently a junk food habit

Of course it is. Music is a symbol of others' experiences. Insofar as you're wasting time listening to music (and thereby absorbing others' experiences, meaning, and knowledge through this medium) instead of having your own experiences, music is a waste of time.

As is literature. But literature's more intellectually taxing, so at least there's that.

[Anonymous No.2729280]

>>2729270

What? Well at any rate if I think I understand what you're saying, then it is really dumb. You can't undermine the power of art to give emotions. Some robotic aspie shit there.

[Anonymous No.2729281]

>>2729270

Of course vicariousness is a sin (as defined by the OP). You're substituting someone else's experiences for your own -- and they're imperfectly communicated experiences, at that.

[Anonymous No.2729283]

>>2729278

As if you're seriously directly getting the experience from the other person who made it when you listen to music. We interpret art ourselves and that is how we get emotion out of it, it's our own experience.

[Anonymous No.2729286]

>>2729280
So you wouldn't say relying on art to experience emotions on a regular basis can be detrimental to a person whereas actually experiencing emotions from real life experiences is much more beneficial to oneself? Isn't it better if the thoughts and emotions one experiences actually relate to ones own life instead of them being the artificial derivatives of someone elses?

[Anonymous No.2729287]

>thinks that life's greatest goal is to be completely independent from others' experiences
>doesn't realize life's greatest goal is to revile in the goods humanity gave us: art

[Anonymous No.2729288]

>>2729283

You're still just responding to a symbol. A symbol isn't reality. It's an imperfect representation of reality.

The fact that we are constantly bombarded with so many symbols is part of the reason that we're so fucked up as a society. We no longer know how to distinguish between symbols and reality.

[Anonymous No.2729290]

>>2729286

Art is just as much a real life experience as hiking is (and I do both). Human emotions are universal and easily shared.

[Anonymous No.2729292]

>>2729288

everything is a symbol

[Anonymous No.2729293]

>>2729288
Seems like you got it all figured out champ. Let me guess, you're about 17?

[Anonymous No.2729294]

All ideas you have are a combination of ideas you've acquired somewhere else. The richer your area of knowledge, the wider your mental library. Even bad books accumulate knowledge - by storing examples of bad practices to avoid in your brain.

In a word, he's plain wrong, because he comes from a pre-neurology ear and has no idea how the brain actually works.

[Anonymous No.2729296]

>>2729288

Wow bro, you're so enlightened.

Either explain your "symbol" shit and tell me what exactly of what I am responding to is a "symbol" and why, or seriously, leave.

[Anonymous No.2729298]

>>2729296
He's a symbol, so you should ignore him, because he's no real. If you don't get it, too bad, our society is too fucked as it is already. See?

[Anonymous No.2729299]

OP sorry to rustle your jimmies with facts but:

You have an evolutionary trait to copy others and absorb personalities into your own. You have done this, even if you don't think so.

The conglomerate of your ideas all stem from other ideas you heard elsewhere, no matter how original they may seem.

We as humans are ultimately social animals and our ability to share ideas and go off from them is what allows us to advance so much.

[Anonymous No.2729300]

>>2729294
So diet and careful choosing in what you partake in is beneficial in any aspect of life except media consumption?

[Anonymous No.2729302]

>>2729294
>All ideas you have are a combination of ideas you've acquired somewhere else. The richer your area of knowledge, the wider your mental library.

This.
Schophy is utterly retarded if he thought it makes someone smart to shut themselves off from books while they were thinking. if anything that just cultivates a an uncritical frame of mind.

[Anonymous No.2729303]

The guy's a tool. He's irrelevant today.

Don't read his stuff.

[Anonymous No.2729304]

>>2729298

hahahahhahahahahahahahahahha

>hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Anonymous No.2729306]

>>2729300
>So diet and careful choosing in what you partake in is beneficial in any aspect of life except media consumption?
A better advice would be to stop generalizing so broadly, because it leads to faulty and harmful assumptions.

[Anonymous No.2729307]

Wow, a lot of defensiveness here. Hey, I read books, but I'm willing to admit that rather than gaining from the symbol I would do better to have the experience contained in the book, in reality instead.

>>2729292

Yes, but at least by responding to reality, even if realtiy if "symbolic", because it's interpreted by you, you're more able to navigate life clearly.

Think of word telephone. Imagine trying to understand "love" after it had been filtered through 300 hundred other people. That's basically what you're doing when you're trying to grapple with the world through other people's conceptions of it.

>>2729293

Aren't you cute.

[Anonymous No.2729308]

>>2729299
I never claimed full autonomy as an unmoved mover. I merely question the value of reading in itself and if it can be overdone and where the limits lie. I thought Schopenhauer's approach to be excellent.

I get your point, but that doesn't mean that there are different gradations in media consumption which influence a person in a certain way that may or may not be detrimental to ones personal development.

[Anonymous No.2729309]

>>2729307

Yes, I see my mistakes. Let's try to be mature about them.

[Anonymous No.2729311]

>>2729302
Shutting yourself of from the consumption of media is something creators have done throughout the ages. It's a very helpful tool. For example, Nietzsche barely read at all in his productive years.

[Anonymous No.2729312]

>>2729308
>I merely question the value of reading in itself and if it can be overdone and where the limits lie
The only downside of reading a bad book is being bored. Otherwise, it's full of information about how you can write a bad book, do bad decisions et all, which are all invaluable if you recignize them as such.

Learning other people's ideas, good and bad, can not be overdone. An intelligent person knows as much as he could, and then picks the best. A person who only lucked onto one single good idea and kept to it through life is still dumb, jsut lucky; the idea could have been bad and he would've been fucked.

[Anonymous No.2729315]

You should read the rest of the second part of Parena und Paralipomena, because that alone can really be misinterpreted, OP.

[Anonymous No.2729313]

>you're nothing but what other people put in you
Neurology > outdated bullshit.
/sci/ > /lit/

[Anonymous No.2729317]

>>2729315
He just likes the concept of being superior by not reading anything.

[Anonymous No.2729321]

People seem to be confusing a lot of different things here ... Meh. This discussion will be going nowhere. Cheers, 4chan.

[Anonymous No.2729324]

You know, Schopenhauer said a lot of bullshit..

[Anonymous No.2729325]

>>2729321
And this is your contribution. Standing around on a leaking ship complaining without taking a bucket and getting to work. Nice.

[Anonymous No.2729326]

>>2729321
Yeah, eat a dick, junior.

[Anonymous No.2729327]

>>2729308

I fear your inability to understand and process the emotional content of literature (and other forms of art) have led you to a fetal life in a literary minefield.

You may do whatever pleases you (or rather, doesn't), I will be over here enjoying good literature.

[Anonymous No.2729334]

Is there a specific time at which the assholes join /lit/? Everything was kind of great until half an hour ago.

>>2729325

I have more enjoyable things to do with my time.

>>2729326

What are you, twelve?

[Anonymous No.2729337]

>>2729334

Everything was great until you made this thread, because, to be honest, it was a little dumb, and /lit/ doesn't like that.

[Anonymous No.2729339]

>>2729337

I didn't make the thread, you idiot.

[Anonymous No.2729340]

>>2729334

>I have more enjoyable things to do with my time.

Like sit around ignoring all media because it poisons your OMG SO ORIGINAL AND INDEPENDENT FROM SOCIETY experiences, am I right?

[Anonymous No.2729343]

>>2729315
Yes, you should also read it.
I know /lit/ like to corrupt the meaning of separate ideas on their ignorance just for fun, but that's even funny when the target is a metalinguistic text about the art of reading by Schopenhauer, that criticize just this. God, it's beyond meta.

[Anonymous No.2729347]

>>2729334
>I have more enjoyable things to do with my time.
Like not reading anything for weeks, amirite.

captcha: beheive $175-200

[Anonymous No.2729349]

>>2729317
Yes, you should also read it.
I know /lit/ like to corrupt the meaning of separate ideas on their ignorance just for fun, but that's even funny when the target is a metalinguistic text about the art of reading by Schopenhauer, that criticize just this. God, it's beyond meta.

[Anonymous No.2729351]

>>2729339

Replace "you" with "him."

I think the fact you're calling someone an idiot because he can't distinguish between anonymous posts is enough to show how you're contributing to /lit/ right now.

[Anonymous No.2729354]

>>2729340
>am I right?

Yes, you're totally right ...

[Anonymous No.2729355]

>>2729354
He really is, though.

[Anonymous No.2729358]

>>2729354

non sequitor, eh? is the anger rising a little, feel frustrated? want to prove us wrong but don't know how?

[Anonymous No.2729362]

This entire thread is ridiculous.

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JAJA

[Anonymous No.2729366]

>>2729358
Was your first logic class nice, hunny?

[Anonymous No.2729369]

>>2729354
How about you start not reading 4chan too, all these influences and symbols bombarding and corrupting your essence. Go ahead faggot, put your money where your mouth is.

[Anonymous No.2729377]

>>2729366

Keep them coming.

I can feel all the anger rising in your sweet, fleshy buttocks, riddled with crispy feces left over from your last shit that you just couldn't wipe off. I can smell all that angry, mad, frustrated, bad breath coming off from your pimply mouth, with a little crustache growing on your top lip, pointing in different directions, flacid, teenaged. I can feel your knees restlessly move under your desk as you worry over what has just been done. You try to make amends, somehow, some way, you just want to feel good again, like you did when you were making this thread. You want to feel that greatness where you felt like a serious intellectual, like you really were on to something. Now you sit behind your computer, full of stress, uncomfortable restless limbs, and you type "Was your first logic class nice, hunny?" You turn away from the computer for a second, and you just look at yourself in the mirror. You just see yourself. It's so ugly. So bizarre. Horrible. All you can do is murmur to yourself "muh experiences..." as you cry.

[Anonymous No.2729384]

>>2729377
This is the most pathetic person ITT. Possibly on all of 4chan. Yikes, dude, you're embarrassing yourself. Get a grip.

[Anonymous No.2729390]

>>2729384
please read
>>2729369

[Anonymous No.2729392]

>>2729384

You look at your computer. You can't believe your eyes. Your autistic levels are rising. You slowly read over all of the text. "I don't understand!" you shout out. You're frustrated! What does this mean?!? You can't begin to comprehend sarcasm or other various forms of humor, all of your time partaking in media has led your mind to be stilted and autismal. You don't know what to do. Why did he write this? It's so bad. You can only resolve to respond to it, with a stealthy sage in the hopes no one else ever sees this thread again, and perhaps to show you mean business. You type onto your keyboard the words "pathetic" ... "4chan" ... "embarrassing." Your room is a little cold, and the air is stilted. You should really shower this morning. Your breakfast hasn't been made yet. You feel somewhat satisfied, somewhat relieved.

[Anonymous No.2729400]

>>2729324
>SOC
>Bad

[Anonymous No.2729404]

>>2729390

"How dare they insult my symbol theory!" you mumble angrily to yourself. Your knees are all scratchy and bloody, as are your elbows. What are you going to do today? You need to do something, you need to cut yourself out of this constant rhythm. For the past week all you've done is post on 4chan, about how symbols are ruining our society. When's the last time you ate? You're not sure. Your room is so dark, you should really turn on the light. Your computer screen is burning into your eyes through the darkness. You can't take the people on this board, they're assholes! They insult you so much! All you can ever think to do in response is call them names, and that makes you feel a little better. They're such idiots! You need to find a better website, of people like you, real intellectuals. They will laud you, and they will not call you names. You scratch your elbow a little and blood oozes out. You need a diet soda right now.

[Anonymous No.2729419]

>>2729377
>>2729392
>>2729404

[Anonymous No.2729435]

>>2729377
>>2729392
>>2729404

[Anonymous No.2729481]

>>2729419
>>2729435

glad you enjoyed it

[Anonymous No.2729485]

>>2729481
well done