/lit/ - Literature

>>19178198
>one's feet should be planted in his country but his eyes should survey the world
use and learn from them all, but have a home.

>>19178157
is it impossible for an atheist to achieve what i asked?

>>19178169
I think there's always been an exceptionally high ratio of inanity to insight on this website specifically, but if you're good at mentally screening for effortposts you can eventually pick up something from this site. that being said, one's feet should be planted in his country but his eyes should survey the world.

how do i keep a loving heart and an open mind? internally, i try to keep as curious and nonjudgmental as possible, but i feel that internally im narcissistic, haughty, and judgy. are these just indelible vices that i will have to consciously fight against my whole life, or can i fundamentally change my passive thoughts to align better with my values?

come back, dear thread, OP's question is still mostly unanswered.

>>19140693
>but i like smoking weed on weekends and dont want to stop that. i just want to stop the dependency. which i have done before. i just cant seem to right now
when i was on the cusp of starting to get addicted to alcohol, i would take moments in which i was sober and dump all the alcohol i had in the house, regardless of how expensive. i kept doing this until i stopped buying more, and for me personally in my case that helped. not really advice just writing what's on my mind.

>>19123785
whenever i try things like this i end up saying things that only make sense to myself, and it comes across and condescending and without social understanding. I said recently we need more "Eisen und Blut", in an english conversation, and failed to elaborate, and that was a mistake. I'd say stick to the Bard or do something like >>19123927
which is still funny even though I don't get the reference.

>>19123789
I think you'll find short stories the easiest "transition" into longer reading. i thoroughly enjoyed borges' labryinths or maybe some of montaigne's essays, the latter of which has lots of short thoughts on (mostly medieval) warfare

>>19114343
where did this opinion come from? i've heard similar stuff before, but i'm not sure what the source is.

>especially where there are legal remedies available for all grievances.
i think that there are lots of grievances that have no legal outlet of expression, and sometimes the law is drawn specifically to bottle up some grievances.

also,
>freedom of the press should be conditional upon the strictest prohibition of any kind of anonymity.
empirically, has that helped prevent "poison-selling"?

>a power that shall be concentrated in one man,
and what if that man is a poison seller? why is it necessary that he rules by the grace of god? is it possible that a nation's power concentrated into one individual can be *less* stable and governable?

>>19111362
all internet resources i've ever used have the same "sifting for gold in a mountain of shit" characteristic, but with different ratios. one thing i've learned is how to quickly identify and inure myself to low-effort opinionated uncurious posters who use this website for a different purpose than you're asking for. there are, on occasion, some actually insightful posts here.

>>/lit/thread/18740975
for instance.

>>19111537
i don't think it's *THAT* horny, or maybe i don't spend enough time on /v/. I think part of it is how users flow from different tabs on the same website, or in this case when /e/ or whatever are a single click away, there's going to be a flux of thoughts and behaviors. plus, i'm sure there's correlates with what >>19111769
said, but there's more to be said about the cultures of this website and the addictive dopamine-rush of (you)s guiding the types of threads that get made here.

>>19112086
some people might, and even if not, this forum is a great place to materialize one's thoughts. i think it helps with clear thinking in general, and occasionally some effortposter might disagree and the discourse might teach me something.

but at the same time, i kind of agree with your post, there was nothing specific in my comment. i've lived in small towns or cities my whole life, following education and employment. >>19112056
what's your experience been? you sound jaded, do you think the "rural-romanticism" on this board is misguided?

>>19112021
fuckin' yoopers.

>>19111807
have you read the transcendentalists? i'm not an expert enough to "prescribe" any reading order, but you might find some interesting thoughts in emerson and thoreau.

>>19112036
>there's no town-country divide in the USA
that's a bit reductionist, isn't it?

also, these threads always blow up. different people live in urban vs. rural settings to pursue different values, if they have a choice at all. how many americans die in the city in which they were born? i don't think anything new or interesting will be posted in this thread, but i'll come back and reassess if i'm wrong in a bit.

>>19111827
useful as an idea once we're out of mandatory education, but what about college or high school students who are assigned reading?

>>19111956
could you turn the reading process social? is there anyone else in your class you can compain to or shoot the shit with regarding this book?

>>19107256
a little strange that you chose to dox yourself here, but interesting analysis. i only briefly read it, but:
how are you accounting for SES of the defendant and victim? are those loosely proxied by the "county" variable? in your genetic matching, are you using *all* the variables to balance the distriubutions or a subset?
but i think the most interesting question is the inclusion of "plea" in the guilty category. per
>pleas are likely driven by the expectation that the defendant would be found guilty if tried.
that's pretty out there, isn't it? isn't the decision to accept a plea deal correlated with some of the variables in the list of covariates?

thanks for posting your original article, anon

>>19042673
I'm about 75% through OP's book. It does sometimes fall into the "this grand rational pattern explains so much of history" trap like lots of anthropologists, but there are enough bounded specific anecdotes to make reading it enjoyable. his bigger thesis on the role of bullion and coinage on history cycles seems a bit grandiose, but he does well support other ideas about the "everyday communism" he so desperately wants to coin across societies and times.

>>19042326
it's an interesting time capsule

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/202-books-and-literature?page=511

how internet culture has changed since then!

>>19042945
I read it ages ago, although I never tried out the experiments myself I remember being off-put by the teenaged edginess of it all. As to where to find it, there's a link on libgen, but not sure what you mean by "original".

If you're interested in chemistry, there's a lot of informative practical textbooks out there, but a fun one is the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. Not advanced, but it has a DIY feel that encourages you to pick up whatever scrap you have and really get into it.

As for the legality, I was surpised to read this article (https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/21241)), excerpted:

The trial which began this Monday (12/04) is in relation to the alleged possession by Mr Bel of the Anarchist Cookbook. Prosecutor John Allman proceeded to outline the contents of the book, highlighting that it contained information on how to make two “highly explosive” substances and that the “book contains information which was likely to be useful to someone committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.”

>>19042106
I was recommended Huck Finn on here, and read it for the first time since I was never assigned it in school. I don't care if it's lowbrow or entry level, I thoroughly enjoyed the world, the characters, the style, everything.

>>19042514
The question of suicide and chirstianity has been looked at, and for the curious lurkers out there, I've pasted part of Thomas Aquinas' thoughts on the subject:

WHETHER IT IS LAWFUL TO KILL ONESELF?
Objection 1: It would seem lawful for a man to kill himself. For murder is a sin in so far as it is contrary to justice. But no man can do an injustice to himself, as is proved in Ethic. v, 11. Therefore no man sins by killing himself.

Objection 2: Further, it is lawful, for one who exercises public authority, to kill evil-doers. Now he who exercises public authority is sometimes an evil-doer. Therefore he may lawfully kill himself.

Objection 3: Further, it is lawful for a man to suffer spontaneously a lesser danger that he may avoid a greater: thus it is lawful for a man to cut off a decayed limb even from himself, that he may save his whole body. Now sometimes a man, by killing himself, avoids a greater evil, for example an unhappy life, or the shame of sin. Therefore a man may kill himself.

Objection 4: Further, Samson killed himself, as related in Judges 16, and yet he is numbered among the saints (Heb. 11). Therefore it is lawful for a man to kill himself.

Objection 5: Further, it is related (2 Mac. 14:42) that a certain Razias killed himself, “choosing to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of the wicked, and to suffer abuses unbecoming his noble birth.” Now nothing that is done nobly and bravely is unlawful. Therefore suicide is not unlawful.

(after this, the author takes a contrary point of view and refutes each of these points.)

>>19038195
i don't know you, anon. also, many older people have stagnated and given up on ambition. i can't answer your question, but i simply wanted to give hope that you can affect the course of your life.

if that's not helpful, here: some people in their late 20s start PhDs. some people in stem jobs hop and hop every few years to land a high-paying "presitgious" one. some people start their own companies. some are climbing the normal ladders. and others, well, are fine where they are, but typically people who post here aren't of the class that are comfortable with their own lives, so i made an assumption.

>>19034189
There is no doubt that Greek and Latin are fine and great accomplishments; but they are bought too dear. I will tell you a cheaper way of buying them: it was assayed on me. Anyone is welcome to use it. My late father, after having made all possible inquiries among the learned and the wise about the choicest form of education, was warned about the disadvantages of the current system: they told him that the length of time we spend learning languages, [C] which cost the Ancients nothing, [A] is the sole reason why we cannot attain to the greatness of mind and knowledge of those old Greeks and Romans.

(although montainge says right afterwards he doesn't believe that to be the *sole* reason.)

>>19036370
steem

>>19037853
>and it's more a result of getting an internship right after high school and he did well
these seemingly minute opportunities are essential for success in stem fields. someone might have failed to tell you that a lot of the value you gain in college is by keeping an ear to the overachievers and learning how to maximize career opportunities. there's still time, anon, i know older people than you who are experimenting and engaging in fruitful self-optimizations.

>>19037934
fool ->? can't love yourself? that's surprising. are there other fools that love themselves? sure there are, I'm a fool and I love myself (sometimes)! self-love isn't free, and sometimes it isn't accessible, but i don't agree with your core premise there.

>>19037787
find your own path, but remember to find people you trust and sample their advices and minds.