/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8866336]

There's so much negative stuff going on, and people as whole (especially here) often seem very angry and cynical. To counter all this, what books would you recommend?

Also I was just thinking that I've been on 4chan daily for at least 10 years and it has probably affected my growth as a person to some degree. I mean 4chan isn't a place you'd recommend to a new acquitance would you? Perhaps it's time to stop?

[Anonymous No.8866358]

>>8866336
Read the Greeks (I'm not joking)
No I would not recommend this place to anyone. It was time for me to stop in 2013.

[Anonymous No.8866366]

You don't need to counter the negativity. You need to get so high on negativity it does nothing.

[Anonymous No.8866381]

>>8866366
Oh I've done that already but after realizing what a miserabe life I'm living I decided it would be better to change.

[Anonymous No.8866596]

>>8866336
>Perhaps it's time to stop?
if you need to ask 4chan to answer this question for you then yes, yes it is.

[Anonymous No.8866625]

Just find something else to do like going to work

[Anonymous No.8866740]

>>8866336
John Steinbeck wrote a lot about how humans are naturally good and this nature allows us to overcome even the greatest misery. The Grapes of Wrath is probably the better example but East of Eden is also good.

Leo Tolstoy also wrote about how ultimately the goodness of humanity will triumph but I'm not familiar with him so can't recommend specific books.

[Anonymous No.8866761]

Stoicism even though you'll get memed in the end

[Anonymous No.8866974]

>>8866740
Anna Karenina's ending is absolutely brilliant but so simple at the same time

At the end of the book full of memorable characters and moments, and just fucking great writing, Levin realizes that he's found a place within himself where he's happy. It's as simple as that. He realizes he can choose to be happy

He looks around at the wilderness around him, and chooses to be happy. When his driver comes to get him, he smiles at the driver but then a minute later reprimands him and gets angry and sad.

He's then terrified he lost that place of inner happiness he had 10 minutes ago, but realizes that it's always there, even if he strays from it he can find it again

Made me really start to turn my life around even though it's dumb simple

[Anonymous No.8867011]

>>8866974
Anna Karenina is the only Tolstoy I've read but it is why I brought him up. I really liked the idea of the new generation of people inheriting the Earth being more enlightened (as represented by Kitty and Levin) while the old generation wastes away (Vronksy and Anna).

[Anonymous No.8867995]

[Anonymous No.8867998]

>>8866366
I did that years ago, it killed the happiness alongside the sadness. You can fight fire with fire but the end result usually burns up the flowers on the ground. Now I'm bleak and depressed and every philosophy feels like its memeing me.

[Anonymous No.8868020]

>>8867995
lol

[Anonymous No.8868059]

The Remains of the Day
Steppenwolf
Siddhartha
Paradise Lost
Tortilla Flat
Les Miserables
The Decameron
Fight Club

[Anonymous No.8868125]

>>8866625
All those pictures look like they're straight from a Tarantino movie.

[Anonymous No.8868145]

>>8866625
a e s t h e t i c