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Need a good book for escaping anxiety at night caused by social isolation. Something like "Alice in wonderland" or that book where a boy discovers treasure on an island, or (don't laugh) something like stephen king books. Something that will make me feel good at night.
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Just watch anime desu its literally designed for that
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>>9596083
That'll fuck up my melatonin. Always been turned off to anime for some reason anyway.
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Moby Dick
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Post the first book you've finished this year.
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My diary desu
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I think I finished The Recognitions in the first half of January but only nerds and losers keep track of that information.
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>>9596033
Spiderlight. It was alright.
Can anyone else not stand DFW's smug moralist writing style?
He's obviously talented, but his smugness makes it difficult to get into his writing
Every page, its like a dumbass with a bandanna is slapping me with obvious lessons he thinks are deeply insightful
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I read him for the first time the other day. He's john green but edgier and somehow even more insecure and it comes across in every sentence.
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>>9595878
He'd have made a better motivational speaker/preacher he clearly saw himself as some post-modern intellectual jesus.
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>>9595894
if you look at The Pale King it's clear he was all out of ideas, I think had he not decided to take the easy way out he would have gone the celebrity author JK rowling route and tweet about politicians he hates and make his living from the lecture circuit.
Why is this shit so praised?
It's an amazing concept that gets completely destroyed by the Author.
I just need to read the 1st chapter to understand what's going to happen.
At least Orwell could keep me curious during his novels.
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>>9595748
Both BNW and 1984 suffer from the same issue. The world building is interesting, but the plot and character development suffer from the pulp writing of the time.
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I bet you are the kind of guy that gets mad when someone spoils a film or a tv show.
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>reading for the plot
LMAO!!!
Anonymous
Is philosophy useless? 2017-06-04 08:16:16 Post No.9595685
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Is philosophy useless? 2017-06-04 08:16:16 Post No.9595685
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So I was watching this guy talking about the top 10 books of philosophy he would take with him to a deserted island. This guy is obviously very well-read and I do enjoy watching his videos but it struck me, why even read philosophy? He now knows philosophical works, then what?
What have this guy and others like him gotten out of it, except now understanding philosophical works? Well and obviously he works and makes money with it but i'm talking about the average guy.
Is it nothing but the practice of performing thought experiments?
Btw this is not me shitting on philosophy but rather i'm trying to find a reason for it, as I was intending to picking it up. Once, I feel I had some answers to this question but no longer.
Why philosophy?
And if anyone want to watch the video i was viewing
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceqXTtcDwNI
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>>9595685
>Is philosophy useless?
Stopped reading there.
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>>9595685
>I'm talking about the average guy
who cares
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eventually everything is useless
my feet hurt when I go grocery shopping after work
2017-06-04 07:38:57 Post No.9595530
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2017-06-04 07:38:57 Post No.9595530
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my feet hurt when I go grocery shopping after work
2017-06-04 07:38:57
Post No. 9595530
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post yfw you realize this is water
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>>9595530
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nooooot fuuuuuuunny
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You don't get tired of talking about this shit?
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Guys, intellectually I'm all spooked out. I can't stand philosophy because of all the unfalsifiable garbage. Many fields like economics etc are just applied common sense and stamp collecting. I see novels as nothing but entertainment despite pretentious people claiming life / philosophical insights and tonnes of people will consider you a disgusting plebeian if you don't initially read shitloads of boring as fuck canon novels.
I think I am painfully adapting to the idea of the Internet age / information overload by abandoning any pretension that I can be an all rounder or even dilettante in everything. There are ten trillion books called "Introduction to [broad and important field]", even if you only have one of each field.
History is similar to novels. Shitloads of reading along with a shitload pretension thrown on top telling you that you truly cannot no nuthin unless you have an in depth understanding of the Greeks / Romans / Christianity / USA / WW1 / WW2 / financial systems / or shitloads of other topics I can't stand it. And then there's current events. I don't care about climate change, outer space, inequality, China, the EU, applied psychology, the education system, diversity, Russia, South America, refugees, nutrition, mental health, and more. Admitting just one of these would make me an iredeemable idiot, no doubt.
Has anyone else had similar thoughts? The spooks are powerful and must be removed but their removal leaves your mind in a promordial state that is more susceptible to spooks than before.
I go to the city centre and see people shopping and the streets are busy, which is comforting compared to when they're empty, but walking through then brings no epiphanies.
I am so past watching movies or tv shows, even ones that pander to "edgy" young males. I just about read books but only because society tells me I should, though I don't derive much enjoyment
And obviously I have an existential crisis but /lit/ is fucking pathetic in demanding that anyone who has one should immediately "grow up" and become a monotheist and wagecuck. I fucking hate wagecucking. Seeing attractive young people is humiliating. I tell myself every day that I'll soon work intensely on one thing but I can't bear to do this. If you're really good at one thing then there are people lining up to call you a tard for not watching opera or being able to run a marathon or whatever shit. So I do nothing.
Every "thinker" is at their core an utter fucking fraud. Nietzche is a Tony Robbins tier Rorschach test. Science and mathematics provide non trivial insights but only in ultra specialised ways that probably require autism to appreciate. I listen to In Our Time podcasts and Bret Easton Ellis podcasts and I think at heart everyone cares about nothing more than social drama.
I think we all need to man up and admit that money, youth, videogames, and good looks are as good as it gets. But not everyone gets.
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>>9595413
You're on the wrong place, then, friendo.
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>>9595413
Try to cut yourself off from the pseudo-reality of videogams before anything by ceasing to engage yourself in "gamer culture". It was only when I did this that I got really interested in reading and studying for its own sake (and lifting).
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The fuck did I just read?
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One of the most important theoretical works of the past century
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>>9595411
A highly influential, albeit dated, analysis of technology's effects on man, specifically in the wake of the postwar economic boom. It's good, OP, give it another shot
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>>9595411
Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
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Let me begin by saying that the Infinite Jest pipe is a huge personal achievement for me. I hope the Infinite Jest pipe is written about in my obituary and becomes the main focus of my Wikipedia page. I might even name my first child "Infinite Jest Pipe."
Creating a pipe like this is not easy. It takes care, precision, and time, but most of all, dedication to your craft. To make this pipe, you will need a power drill, a straw, some tape, and a copy of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
This was the first time in my 23 years of existence that I have ever used a power drill, and likely my last too. I am simply not to be trusted with power tools. In my first draft of this article, I actually encouraged readers to get stoned and use power tools because, damn, it is so much fucking fun. (It's especially rewarding if you are drilling a hole in a book that you absolutely could not finish and that has been haunting your bookshelf, taunting you, and making you feel guilty about your millennial attention span for, like, six years.) But now that I am rethinking the situation sober, I do not—I repeat, DO NOT—recommend using power tools while stoned, no matter how fun it is. (It's very fun.) I refuse to feel responsible for some stoner with poor judgement sawing someone's arm off while using a chainsaw to make a pipe out of an oak tree.
Anyway, to make an extremely long process short, what I essentially did here was drill a hole through the top of the book with a power drill. I then put a straw through the side of the book and taped the pages closed around the edges. The straw makes it easier to inhale all the smoke and the tape creates an airtight seal.
I give the Infinite Jest bowl a 9.5/10. I would've given it a 10/10 if it was a book I actually read and enjoyed, and an 11/10 if the book wasn't written by a white dude.
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oh look mira is bored again
someone post the mira pasta and someone pretend to be mira so we can get this thread over with and she can get back to her very busy literary lifestyle.
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I thought lit was depressed today. I'm glad there are some creatives here not bogged down for quality posts like these. I'm going to make a pipe now.
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>>9595407
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Books for this feel?
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infinite jest desu
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My man I always recognized this in myself but never knew it was a classified complex and now I feel more hopeless about it so thanks a bunch.
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>>9595354
my diary senpai
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How do you feel about the four great classics of Chinese literature (Water Margin, Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Mansions)?
And of the saying that a young person should read Three Kingdoms and not Water Margin, and an old one should read Water Margin and not Three Kingdoms?
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Read them in any order you like. Chinese literature gives you every trope in literature crammed into one. Want history, politics, sex, warfare (with actual strategy and tactics no less), religion, and philosophy all into one?
Although I would add it is helpful to read them in chronological order since they will reference each other, for example Outlaws references the Three Kingdoms (as how could it not, these are ubiquitous in the culture), and the Jin Ping Mei itself is an elaboration of a minor interlude from Outlaws which makes it a kind of Medieval Better Call Saul (even though it has its own absurd and unrelated framing story).
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>>9595161
I really like Journey to the West. It's crazy. Wukong is crazy, and everyone else is a little bitch tho.
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>>9595278
remember when buddha locks him in five pillars after sun wukong tries to jump off of his hand, only to realize he's pissing on buddha's hand like a thousand miles away on the edge of the earth? that shit was awesome.
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The writing is trash and is for children. This we know.
However, is it worth re-reading these for nostalgia's sake? I haven't read these for maybe 10-15 years.
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did you like it before?
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>>9594949
i dont know but people keep pushing me to read these as an adult since i never did as a child. i politely decline but in my mind im telling them to get fucked.
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What version of this book should I get?
Inb4 don't even read it
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>>9594860
Don't even read it.
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>>9594860
I've seen the one with the red bird on it recommended
I would go for the everyman's library one, that looks real nice
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>>9594883
I'll look into those two thanks
>Be good author
>Commit suicide
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>>9594716
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Writing has a way of taking apart the fictions that are required to hold people together, so that they can love and work and believe in things. The more aestheticized and refined writers become, the more fragile they get.
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>>9594716
Spending too much time thinking leads you to dark places.
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Any thoughts on this book/author?
I really enjoyed Sapiens but felt like this one was pretty meme-ish
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I think it is good that someone ponders about the future but can't say I was all that impressed
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I really liked Sapiens, excited to read Deus. It's a shame /lit/ doesn't talk much about non-fiction.
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Dataism sucks.
Read John Gray's review of the damn thing, he articulates better than anyone why this book is a massive meme.