What do I have to read before I can call myself an autodidact?
>>9990325
whatever it is you need to teach yourself to do the shit you need to do
ya big bitch
>>9990332
thanks my dude, looking for general recommendations on whatever subject
>>9990345
literally whatever you think is cool or important.
self-sufficiency, living in the woods, restoring cars, byzantine literature, how to breed slugs.. With enough patience and a lil attitude you can learn anything :>)
...So they started thinking about it, the humans. They weren't really anything special, from a strictly biological perspective (or that of the apes, who just didn't see the appeal), but they did have the capacity for collective self-awareness. The Jellyfish coached them, wordlessly, through the inherited genetic sense of squidge that hammered at the insides of some of the more sensitive ones, and they really started to figure it out: what the fuck *were* they here for?
>>9990174
What were the *others* here for? Linneus was a bit daft in his own way, but his application of Aristotelian principles of order and logic to the screaming meat-sacks that inhabit this queer little rock does provide a handy framework for some basic grouping and sorting type things, so we can talk about "wildebeests" or "kangaroos" and we all know what the fuck we're talking about, and it carries with it a certain understanding of behavior that accompanies such categories. That's why humans are so tricky. They don't "human." That is, there's nothing definitively human enough to distinguish them from any other species except that of certain behavioral and organizational patterns. They talk with complex language, but we really don't know how detailed dolphin-speak is through whatever special dolphin-senses they may have to register it through which we don't, but we can safely assume that human spoken language isn't so vastly much more complex that it would be considered as a fundamentally different behavior. It's still speaking and listening. Written language, too - while arguably more distinctively human than anything - can be understood as semiotic markings with physical objects, and thus must be disincluded as unique to the species, because others do that (otters, maybe? Some insects? Beavers?). It's troubling to the collective self-awareness of the human species, because it knows it can't really define itself outside of tautological terms. Wut do?
>>9990199
Well, it seems that the key is in recognizing that the one thing those other "species" *never* did is get all fucked up about why they were here.
Self-awareness is great. It's necessary to being capable of understanding the necessary abstractions which have allowed us to manipulate the world around us and create the marvels of technology that have contributed to the comfort and sustenance of generations. The greatest works of human philosophy revolve around the consequences of self-awareness. It cuts to the core of everything.
But it's also a trap. Self-awareness can allow you to understand yourself... but never completely. There are limits to knowledge, and awareness is not the same thing as knowledge. Once a human believes that they have the ability to gain control over the forces that move their lives and the lives of others - to literally direct their fate, so to speak - they have fallen for the meme.
You are still a meat-sack. We are all a meat-sack. We are the collective meat-sack of humanity, and we either accept the limits of our individuality, or we suffer. Usually both, and most often the former is the product of a generous application of the latter.
But the abstraction is still very useful. For what we humans have, what defines us in ways that no other biogenetic corporeal manifestation of energy as categorized/able by the Linnean taxonomy has managed to demonstrate, is frustratingly simple: our imagination. Both collectively and individually, the imagination of the human meat-sack is absolutely universal in its sphere and breadth of complexity. It *is* the universe.
We will understand soon how strongly this bears upon our lives, we who know the calling of the void, the incessant pang of sheer epistemic aporia, the need and the want for knowing, for gnosis. It's on the way.
So stay alive, humans. It's something all life has in common - it exists in this dimension (within a reasonable degree of demonstrable proof, albeit surely with a non-zero probability of being false). So exist, and know that for all we know, it's all you need to be doing.
>>9990174
HAHAHA LOOK MARK FISHER I TURNED MYSELF INTO AN AI ENHANCED PICKLE!!!
>DUDE THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS LMAO
Is there an edgier, more simplistic philosophy?
Dicks out for harambe
>>9990118
where his ears tho
>>9990337
He got sick of listening to the haters. OP is a fag, btw.
Does anyone else detect a certain commonality between Proust and Melville? I refer of course to their respective masterpieces. ISOLT, of course, deals with the slow passage of everyday life, and Proust's attempt to communicate the role memory plays in our perception of the flow of time. I can't help but feel there's a certain similarity with what happens in Moby-Dick. Once Ahab's given his quarter-deck speech, we get very little of the "main plot" for the rest of the story, and Melville instead attempts to capture the slow ebb and flow of life aboard a whaling vessel. Various characters have their little experiences, their small victories and defeats, but time rolls on over all.
Maybe I'm reaching here. Does anyone else get this feeling? I also got similar sentiments reading The Book of the New Sun; I suppose that would naturally have something in common with In Search of Lost Time, given that both Proust and Wolfe are interested in memory.
>>9990098
This post is very disrespectful toward Melville.
>>9990098
>hey this author talks about daily occurrences in the characters life and remembers stuff
>woah, so does this other author
>this is like so rare
>dude you should make a thread about it
>>9990109
this
Hey there /lit/ I am sort of a new fag in this board. my problem is rather simple. I will go to college this mid-september and apply for a languages major, however I didn't score a high enough average for applied languages, so I will rather enroll in language/literature/culture minor.
I have never completed a full book my whole life. I will start reading a book that I really enjoy, only to phase out 5 minutes later 25 pages ahead wihout having no memory of what I just read, eventually put down the book and watch it collect dust.(keep in mind I can read something for the sake of studying it) . So I guess my questions are, is there a general path I can take into literature? Should the works be intrinsically tied to history? Are there any techniques on how to better read and apreciate literature? Thank you.
>>9990023
go outside, take nothing except for your keys and the book
>>9990028
Actually might try that tomorrow. Thanks.
In your case keep in mind like 90% of the work is just starting it and 10% is the effort to continue it and not get distracted. For the 10% I can recommend some easy things like varying where you read, keep your phone and laptop at a distance etc., but the most difficult part is up to you. Well, finding something you LIKE to read also helps, but again, it's not something anons can easily help with. One wrong recommendation can turn you off from reading forever. Here's the list of /lit/'s most popular/memes, pick something from the 2nd row if you're going for literary fiction as the 1st is a combination of too memey/difficult/avant-garde stuff for newfags
ITT: Works you love that are seemingly contradictory to your belief system
E.g. you're a communist but you love Dostoyevsky
>>9989870
i like Dostoevsky's characterization of Russians,
the wealth of retrospect, notation, and farce is greater than his liberal ideology
I'm a commie degenerate and I love Ernst Jünger enough to learn the alt-code for the umlaut u.
>>9989870
i feel like junot diaz would hate me but i love most of his fiction
is it wrong to compromise your thinking?
>>9989845
Being intransigent makes you an asshole. I don't know what you mean by "compromise" though.
don't ask stupid questions
>>9989845
Kinda inevitable unless you're independently wealthy and enjoy solitude
Why does it seem like fantasy fiction is always set in periods of time where everything has gone to shit? Why does nobody write when everything was grand and amazing? This happens in all fantasy, the biggest example I can think of is Dark Souls. You're always slapped in the point where everything sucks, and there's all this great lore and history about how everything used to be awesome but we never actually get to experience it
A less orderly, more anarchic setting has more opportunity for conflict, and conflict creates drama, and drama is more interesting to read about than an absence of drama.
Also, ruins are kind of cool.
What are your thoughts on Lang Leav?
tss why did lang leav did he have somewhere else to be or somethin
>>9989810
not /lit/
gtfo
>>9989850
>author
>makes poems
>not lit
I don't see your login
>How did scrambled eggs get stuck with breakfast exclusivity? You can put bacon on a sandwich without anyone freaking out. But the moment your sandwich has an egg, boom, it's a breakfast sandwich.
You guys excited for Turtles All The Way Down?
given the daily threads about john green im getting the impression /lit/ secretly loves him
>>9989731
it's called viral marketing, fag
>>9989731
How did John Green get stuck with /lit/? You can mention the dude on Reddit without anyone freaking out. But the moment your sandwich has a John Green, boom, it's a /lit/ sandwich.
are there any /lit/-tier ghost stories?
Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Shetland Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for her book Voices from Chernobyl. Thinking of picking up either pic related or Voices from Chernobyl.
>Svetlana*
>Phone posting autocorrect
We have a thread for Norse mythology, how about once for the ancient Celts?
Recommended literature on the mythology/history of the people? Where do I start?
>>9989322
You Google "Celtic mythology books"
Do you think any of the faggots on this board will recommend you something you won't find in a 30 seconds search?
>>9989328
I see nothing wrong with approaching /lit/ for their views on what is worth reading about the topic, and maybe their recommended path in reading them. Of course I can google, is it really such heresy to ask a literature board about a topic related to literature?
>>9989322
Daily reminder that Agallamh na Seanórach is objectively a better work than the Táin
"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig." - MA
What do you dig with? Where does your virtue exist relative to your logic?
>>9989297
Ignore Gnosticism. All the evil of the world only exists within Man's heart.
>take GRE practice test
>only score 163 on reading and 164 on analytical
should I just kill myself now?
ye