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/lit/ - Literature

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6644410 No.6644410 [Reply] [Original]

Despite all the shit on this board, despite all the memes and mockery, is this not one of the last bastions of intellectual e/lit/ism?

I write to you from the University of Oxford. This ship is sinking. It has proudly sailed at the head of an armada for close to a millennium, and yet even the most sea-worthy of vessels will have somewhere a crack. The water is coming in. Perhaps little more than a drip, but there it is nonetheless. Perhaps this would not be a problem, but it is this ship's crew themselves who have opened up the crack. The student body of Oxford is in the process of destroying the world's oldest English language university. And here I am. I am sat at my desk this Friday night, and instead of preparing for exams, I pour myself another glass of wine and despair.

This ship needs a mutiny. But how can as small a minority as we are launch a coup against the established institution? How can one exterminate nihilism when it is so derivative and so widespread and so common? But what is the alternative? What will become of the University of Oxford if we do not take up arms? I knew of existentialism before I arrived here, but there was no crisis until I realised the state of even this most esteemed academic institution.

Wherein lies our redemption? How are we to step back from the brink? Through what can this university - and indeed Western society - first restore, then overcome and outstrip itself?

Do you ever look around yourself at the world and despair? Not with plebeian anti-capitalist sentiment, but at the health of your fellow man's soul? And do you not ask yourself that most profound, most momentous of questions: "Where do I go from here; how can I proceed?"

And to return to my original question: is this not one of the last bastions of intellectual e/lit/ism? What has society come to when 4chan is home to a final hope? What is the state of man that such an oasis is left to us? Everyone who comes to 4chan has a problem of some sort - we are far from perfect, and yet we are this board. So as I pour myself another glass, cheers, /lit/, despite it all.

I think I shall go for a walk tonight. After dark one can escape the pedestrian traffic; the tourists buying Harry Potter merchandise; the sickeningly hollow Everyman. When the roads are quiet, one can imagine he is in an Oxford of an earlier time. One can feel the majesty befitting this great city and this great university. One such as I can get the sense I am truly at home here after dark. All I have to do is avoid the late night revellers. Another glass of wine.

>> No.6644417

Decent 7/10

>> No.6644423

No.

>> No.6644427

Can't tell if this is serious, but /lit/ is shit too and intellectually stifling, maybe less than other places though.

>> No.6644431

You should take DMT. Anyway that's my opinion

>> No.6644436

Repetition doesn't have a rhetorical benefit as you use it and there's a forced passivity to your opening. Didn't read the rest of your blog posting because you obviously just need to keep a bear in your lodging.

>> No.6644447

>>6644410
Shoot yourself rich cunt.

The alternative is proletarian culture.

>> No.6644466

All right, everybody just needs to cool out!

>> No.6644509

Technology as made media production so cheap, so easy, that almost anyone is able to influence culture.

Take for example the website youtube, billions constantly posting new content, making music, and influencing our culture.

The world hasn't gotten any dumber, just that every dumb person has been given a voice. You no longer need to be a qualified writer or artist to make videos to become popular. As consequence we have a rise in superficial, simple entertainment.

4chan isn't that much of an exception to it all though.

>e/lit/ism irks me and makes me think this whole thread was made just to be a gag...

>> No.6644518

I wish I were in the ivory tower doing worthless academia shit.

>> No.6644520
File: 17 KB, 297x393, Heideggfa.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6644520

>>6644410
I will begin a promotion of /lit/ on th eother boards to put this one to death.

>> No.6644529

>Despite all the shit on this board, despite all the memes and mockery, is this not one of the last bastions of intellectual e/lit/ism?
no
this place is full of stiff, homogeneous opinions

>> No.6644539
File: 81 KB, 757x960, Mk45lcDjpg.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6644539

Why is our generation so apathetic?

>> No.6644553

It's just the way the world turns. Rome falls every day, but the empire never ended. Try to broaden your picture and see that this is something which goes beyond politics, beyond economy, beyond culture.

Part of fighting the good fight is first finding out how many bad fights there are to pick instead. Since you mentioned existentialism, you might want to start with re-examining what it's all about, and what it's maybe missing - it got me started off, alright.

>> No.6644570

8/10
Almost audibly chuckled

>> No.6644575

>>6644539
who cares

>> No.6644598

>>6644539
People, once fed, are entertained by TVs, movies, restaurants, drinks, drugs.

For the few that do care about things, they're often endeavors that aren't that important. Take for example civil rights of minorities, gun rights, or religious rights. These rights may be very important to that group, but on the grand scheme of humanity issues such as the environment should be our main worry. Considering every time a water table is poisoned, another ton of carbon is emitted, we are all globally effected by it and put into danger.

It's much easier to not care, than it is to tackle problems that would take twice the length of humanity to fix.

>> No.6644615

>>6644539
cuz everything's shit, that's why

>> No.6644630

Most pompous, overblown, pathetic, cliched, kitschy shit I have read today, I may have cancer now, are you happy, ARE YOU HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO PEOPLE YOU NIGGER FAGGOT?

>> No.6644633

>>6644410
you were responsible for

>e/lit/e

or something like that, which used a fucking sigma to represent the 'e' and got shat on, right?

>> No.6644636

>>6644630
>mfw when OP is actually a homosexual African.

>> No.6644647

>>6644636
In that case I withdraw my harsh statement and ask OP to post pics of his sweet nine inch ebonite delight.

>> No.6644679

>>6644410
>writes from Oxford
>complains about the lowering of standaeds
>asks if 4chan is one of the last bastion of intellectual elitism

I didn't know irony could be sickening until now.

Anyway, nice bait, solid 7/10.

>> No.6644709

>>6644539
That fucking pic; why can't women be couth and classy anymore?

>> No.6644714

As somebody who went to Oxford, if you seriously think /lit/ is more intellectual than the university I hope somebody drowns you in the Cherwell.

>> No.6644734

>>6644714
Of course the university as a whole still stands tall. The point is that it is rotting.
Please tell me you didn't go to Wadham.

>> No.6644785

>>6644734
No it isn't.
You never even explained why you think this.
And no I didn't go to Wadham.

>> No.6644805

>>6644785
B

>> No.6644810

>>6644805
BT
T

>> No.6644815

>>6644785
Did you graduate recently enough that you know what I mean when I say Wadham-esque?

>> No.6644819

>>6644810
BTF
T
F

>> No.6644824

>>6644819
BTFO
T
F
O

>> No.6644845

>>6644709
To me it just looks like a 21st century commercial tapping into "vintage aesthetics". Girl is way too groomed, way too clean for someone who's beein riding a bicycle in a time when black-and-white photograph were still the norm.

>tfw your nostalgic yearnings are a byproduct of clever fashion marketing

>> No.6644854

/lit/ is, at best, loads of horse and cow shit thrown in to a large blender that has been turned on without a lid. Most of the time, it's just a bunch of excrement spewed up and splattering the walls, but sometimes the excrement has been spattered in such a way that is actually kind of beautiful in its own shitty way.

>> No.6644861

>>6644785
I don't have a notion of what you are referring to, but I was a postgrad student anyway, and the shitty elitist obsession with colleges doesn't exist at that level.

>> No.6644867

>>6644861
Nothing to do with elitism between colleges, but Wadham is irrefutably the source of all that is left and wrong with Oxford.

I'm going for a walk now.

>> No.6644868

>>6644845
I just thought that was an original pic; I see no product advertisement.

>> No.6644885

>>6644845
You now realise that B&W photography was the norm in WWII and mass culture marketing existed in WWII complete with this aesthetic.

Even though that photo is instashite, you can tell because the cheesecake skirt is too high on the thigh.

>> No.6644893

>>6644867
God I hate undergraduates.

>> No.6644898

>>6644885
M8 I just thought vintage aesthetic looked better; I have no urge to buy anything. fug

>> No.6644900

>I write to you from the University of Oxford. This ship is sinking. It has proudly sailed at the head of an armada for close to a millennium, and yet even the most sea-worthy of vessels will have somewhere a crack. The water is coming in. Perhaps little more than a drip, but there it is nonetheless. Perhaps this would not be a problem, but it is this ship's crew themselves who have opened up the crack. The student body of Oxford is in the process of destroying the world's oldest English language university. And here I am. I am sat at my desk this Friday night, and instead of preparing for exams, I pour myself another glass of wine and despair.

precisely what are they doing m8?

>> No.6644902

>>6644893
Undergraduates gonna undergraduate.

>> No.6644915

The problem with this thread is that you don't specify what angle you're coming from, and you can be either making a decent claim about Ideology and capitalism or you can be just making yet another philistine rant about "political correctness" or something like that.

>> No.6644938

>>6644893
Yeah fair. The Rad Cam is nice at night though.

>> No.6644940

>>6644868
It could be by any semi-professional photographer who's informed by fashion but can't think beyond that, and is thus always dealing with image in a cosmetic way. Basically the kind of "art" photographer who think a pretty girl in vintage clothes instantly makes your work art. Merely fashion in another guise (nothing wrong with fashion, except the general pretentiousness of people who work in it).
Or it could be original art that's been recuperated so many times it's virtually indinstinguishable from advertising. Welcome to post-reality.


I might be wrong, of course, but everything in that pic looks staged to me.

>>6644885
>You now realise that B&W photography was the norm in WWII and mass culture marketing existed in WWII complete with this aesthetic.

Doesn't contradict what I said in any way, quite the contrary. There's little difference between getting your aesthetics straight from 40s stereotypical fashion and getting it from 2000s-recycled-from-the-40s fashion. It was already advertising (perhaps the beginning of advertising as we know it) at the time. Point is the whole thing is staged for the consumer's eye, and isn't representative of "the way girls used to be", although it may try to appears as such.

>> No.6644962

I completely understand, OP. I completely do.

Time for venting and ranting has been long over with. This is time for action. Intellectual action like never seen before. The Giants among men have to stand.

Stand.

>> No.6644975

I live in Oxford. My dream to go to the university. I have seen a youtuber who studied philosophy, econ and politics there and he is absolute autism. I honestly believe /lit/ is one of the last bastion of intellectualism.

>> No.6644994

>>6644975
PPE is a god-tier degree, don't bash it.
Sort of wish I was doing it.

>> No.6645019

>>6644994
It is. imo one of the hardest courses you could take. A lot of work at universities/colleges is really boring, independent study is the best form of learning, believe me. You aren't missing out on much.

>> No.6645077
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6645077

>>6644410
/lit/ is for pretencious assholes,you were never the "elite".You shy away like goblins to your caves when physicists,mathematicians and engineers come to the table.You may try to hide your lack of abstract thinking/visualisation/creativity behind "sophisticated" words,but in the end you are bufoons.

>> No.6645161

>>6644539
>>6644709
>>6644845
>>6644885
>>6644868
>>6644940

>It’s one of the most poignant photos in the book — Peters was on her way to a successful Hollywood career when she was shot in the back in a hunting accident and paralyzed from the waist down. She died a few years later, at age 31.
>Susan Peters

From the book Hollywood Rides a Bike.
Those feels...

>> No.6645188

>>6645077
I am a physicist m80

>> No.6645388

>>6644539
>Why is our generation so apathetic?
because we have no war

>> No.6645391

you are in the internet's anus, stop being so fucking smug and pretentious about this place
dear god, it is /lit/, books, why the fuck is people posting endlessly their pointless monologues
WE DONT FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOUR OPINION ON THE DECADENCE OF THE WEST, ONTOLOGY, WHY YOU ARE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN X PHILOSOPHER OR WHAT YOU HAD FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING
TALK ABOUT BOOKS FOR FUCKS SAKE

>> No.6645394

>>6645077
Your post has the hallmarks of an edgy newfag from /b/.

>> No.6645403

>>6645394
you visit /b/?, oh wow, what a loser

>> No.6645410
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6645410

isn't it weird how if i found this written like a hundred years ago I would totally agree with it, but now that I see it posted on an internet forum by a fellow faggot teenager my immediate reaction is disgust and revulsion?

that just seems kind of wrong.

>> No.6645493
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6645493

You're really a fucking idiot if you think lit is actually intellectual

But I see how people are so fucked; so depressing in what they are, even if they don't realize it.

I think this all correlates with the state of the economy. Pop culture, with its current waste land is an easy indicator of the state of things

The solution is pretty simple, but me telling you is pointless, because not everyone is in a position to do something about it, and I doubt you are either but if you can manage to get what you just wrote out of that cliche, middle school boat metaphor then you'll know what to do

>> No.6645509

>>6645493
Whom knows?

>> No.6645528
File: 45 KB, 2000x1931, smug_9z1xZ.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6645528

>>6645493
>But I see how people are so fucked; even if they don't realize it.
>The solution is pretty simple

>> No.6645588

>>6645410
>a fellow faggot teenager

There's your explanation.

>> No.6645595

>>6644867
Haha, OP's gonna have a shitty walk cuz he's all butthurt now.

>> No.6645611

>>6644709
Some are, but it looks forced as fuck.
That pic makes me hard tho.

>> No.6645628

>>6645611
>fat girls who go for the vintage look
We are forsaken

>> No.6645653

>>6644539
Who is this fluid druid?

>> No.6645879

>>6644410
>is this not one of the last bastions of intellectual e/lit/ism?
This is 4chan. Do you realize how many teenagers and college drop-outs are here?

>> No.6645959

>>6645509
Obviously not you if you say whom like that

>>6645528
Did you not read after that? It's simple if you're intuitive, but not if you're an idiot

>> No.6646045

>>6645077
being this le stem

>> No.6646205
File: 40 KB, 446x545, 1432082470100.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6646205

>>6644410
>oxford
>he couldn't get into Williams College
point and laugh

>> No.6646778

>>6644410
>Through what can this university - and indeed Western society - first restore, then overcome and outstrip itself?
Why EXACTLY is this a necessity for the West?
>And do you not ask yourself that most profound, most momentous of questions: "Where do I go from here; how can I proceed?"
Not very profound. Everyone asks that to themselves when they're in college (yes, even the chads and stacys that you're so more e/lit/e than)
>bad prose/10

>> No.6646814

>>6644466
Checking

>> No.6648191

>>6645077
Completely top my main man. And he's right too, I actually have a cave and everything.

>> No.6648221

>>6645391
>>6645403
>>6644898
>>6645493
>>6645509

Haha this thread it just keeps on
thanks guys
the game