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/lit/ - Literature

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5283419 No.5283419[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I want to read some books that actually celebrate our modern happy consumerist globalism rather than criticise it.

What's so wrong with riding your Sea-Doo™ during the Bora Boran sunset with your K-Pop gf on the back?

>> No.5283426

Tao Lin.

>> No.5283431

game of thrones

>> No.5283435

The 007 books brand name drop like crazy and it's not even (unlike the films) product placement

>> No.5283609

American Pyscho innit

>> No.5283615
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5283615

>we live in the happiest society of all time

>> No.5283620

>>5283615
Which one would you rather live in?

>> No.5283627
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5283627

>>5283620
what the fuck do you think?

>> No.5283632

>>5283620
Early 20th century USA or late 19th century Britain. The only downside would be the missing technology, but perhaps I could divert some disastrous events and stop the stagnation of the Western world.

>> No.5283637

>>5283620
An iron age shithole, so long as I wasn't a slave.

>> No.5283661

>>5283620
Ancient Greece, Nicopolis.So I could become the student Epictetus wanted.

>> No.5283669

Much of the world (the west at least) has been in a golden age for the last 70 years and will probably continue this way for decades to come

>> No.5283689

>>5283669
The golden age of the West lasted from the Renaissance until WWII. It's been downhill ever since, we've completely lost all momentum and ambition.

>> No.5283743

>>5283627
The great depression, a few years of progress and then a world war, capitulation and humiliation doesn't seem very pleasant to me.

>>5283632
You'd probably living a shitty, subservient life of hard work.

>>5283637
You even more.

>>5283661
And you too. Very unlikely that you would have the luxury to do that.

A lot of people who think it was better at some other time always secretly add "because I of course would have been wealthy and of high status". Most likely you would have been a pleb, as you are now. It's much better to be a pleb now.

>> No.5283763

>>5283743
>You even more.
I already am, but back then I probably wouldn't suffer from feeling that my life is meaningless or suicidal inclinations.

>> No.5283773

>>5283743
>It's much better to be a pleb now
Capitalists, everybody

>> No.5283782

>>5283773
You'd rather be a factory worker in 19th century England than 2014 England?

>> No.5283788

>>5283743
I'm >>5283661
Tbh I'd rather be living a shitty life as a stoic in ancient greece than be living a life filled with ennui in the 21st century because at least then I'd have a purpose.

>> No.5283804

>>5283620
the 1990s

You can drop me off around 88'

>> No.5283809

>>5283782
Is this the "Brave New World" gambit my high school English classed warned me about?

>> No.5283810

>>5283788
Who says you would have been born into the luxury/luck to pursue philosophy?

Also, why not live a shitty life as a Stoic now?

>> No.5283827

>>5283809
Is that a no?

>> No.5283841

>>5283810
>"What would have become of Hercules do you think if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar - and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul, without crises or conditions to stir into him action?" - Discourses I 6 32-34

There's nothing to stir me into action, I practice stoicism but honestly there's not much in life that is REALLY gonna fuck me.

>> No.5283842

>>5283810
Lack of power process

>> No.5283955

>>5283841
Convert to Epicureanism broter, it's more suited for pleasant circumstances.

>> No.5283978

>>5283955
>>5283841
>they still hasn't converted to Cynicism

>> No.5283979

>>5283955
I am actually interested in Epicureanism but I don't know what texts to read and what it's actually about. Got any recommendations?

>> No.5283992

>>5283743
>implying I'm not wealthy now

if social status did transfer with this hypothetical temporal journey, i'd be cool with being dropped off in octavian's rome, please

>> No.5283998

>>5283979
Some pasta:

For Epicureanism you should read the letters to Herodotus, Pythocles, Menoecleus, The Principle Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings. But this may be the best place to start:

http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-principles
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-ethics
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-gods-death
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/lucretius
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/warren-epicurus

This site provides podcasts that chronologically treat the history of philosophy. They're a great introduction and listening to the ones posted above should provide you with a great framework and general view of the subject matter. Listen to these first.

Of course there's also the articles on wikipedia, iep and plato.stanford to start with.

>> No.5284001

>>5283978
>implying you have

>> No.5284011

>>5283998
Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to read/listen to them. Btw is it possible to practice a combination of stoicism and epicureanism or are they mutually exclusive?

>> No.5284012

>>5284001
I'm posting from a public library, where I spend most of my day.

>> No.5284014

>>5283992
What would be preferable about it? Your wealth wouldn't buy you much because there simply wasn't much around. You could only eat local food and buy horrible sweet white wine and talk to ignorant people.

>> No.5284024

>>5284011
In a sense they seem alike because they both longed for a certain equanimity, but they disagreed on most basic subjects, such as their ideas of the cosmos and ethics and such. Still, there is wisdom to be found in both schools that can be applicable to anyone's life, I guess.

>> No.5284028

>>5284014
i could bugger anyone i damned well pleased with impunity

also, i'd probably have a villa in some isolated armpit in central europe where my word is law, and the fact that there simply wasn't much to buy would make me appreciate the man-toys i do have more

also, i'd be okay with living in pre-revolution france. i guess around 30 years before 1776

>> No.5284029

>>5284012
Doesn't sound very Cynic to me. Shouldn't you be outside heckling people?

>> No.5284032

>>5284024
Ah,ok.Thanks.

>> No.5284034

>>5284029
I heckle everyone who leaves with genre fiction.
I also heckle the pretentious cunts who leave with philosophy.
I also heckle the loitering twats who leave with nothing.
The place has two entrances so if they kick me out of one I can enter through the other.

>> No.5284038

>>5284028
If you strive for a Sadean type of life, I can see your point. Today's world doesn't lend itself towards those type of depravities. Everyone's worried about consent.

>> No.5284048

>>5284034
do you do stunts

>> No.5284054

>>5284038
exactly

but even sadean depravity seems to have lost its luster nowadays. the more violent episodes excepted, most of what sade depicted simply doesnt have the "forbidden" aura in it anymore

coprophilia? s&m clubs have that, almost advertised
"dishonoring" women? nobody cares about that anymore, or even pretend to care
whips and such? commonplace, joke material
"wasting" man-seed and self-abuse? discussed on national television
oral sex? yeah, show me one sexually active woman who hasnt done it

nothing is taboo anymore, i imagine most people who read justine will probably laugh out loud at the absurd situations she finds herself say, at the monastery. i'd be hard pressed to find someone who would actually be horrified at anything of the sort

also, i like the word libertine

>> No.5284072

>>5284054
You haven't read 120 Days of Sodom, have you?

>> No.5284085

>>5284048
>stunts
Yeah I consecrate the Harry Potter section with an offering of my life juice in the name of St. Harold Bloom and occasionally re-title Philosophy as Children's Books

If I've got time on my hands I'll very carefully tear out each individual page of a feminist theory book and leave it in a neat pile where the toilet paper used to be with an apology note for being unable to find something less coarse on the individual

>> No.5284232

>>5284054
Plenty of people are horrified by jerking off on the faces of five year olds and having pregnant women balance on pillars surrounded by thorns and seeing how long they last, and stabbing young boys to death while you ass fuck them et cetera. What about the guy who makes an incision in his daughter's belly and fucks her womb through the wound? Sade has not lost it's shock appeal to most people.

Still, you're right that psychologically a lot of sexual things have become less titillating because it's accepted. The few things that have become less acceptable is fucking young people and fucking people who do not consent, and they have also become much harder to get away with. When we'll get to proper DNA databases times will become even worse for the criminally inclined. Now that the information age is getting beyond its wild west era, people will have to prepare for a society where everything is under surveillance by everyone and nothing can be gotten away with. Breaking the taboos that do exist simply isn't worth the trouble.

Still, this is not just a problem of our times but a problem of positive hedonism as an approach to life. Even when getting your dick sucked was taboo, doing it often enough will diminish the thrill of breaking the taboo. Sade also shows this in his characters, eventually even snuff just bores them and they have a hard time attaining orgasm and are generally frustrated and angry. The greatest argument against a libertine lifestyle is hedonistic adaptation, regardless of the circumstances.