Is life really just a sham, constantly oscillating between pain and boredom, where the brief pleasure of the predator is always outweighed by the immense pain of the prey? Is Zapffe correct to assert that our consciousness is tragically over-evolved to necessarily result in our angst and dissatisfaction? I don't want to believe, but these often seem the most reasonable positions.
I've tried living a modest life, dedicated to aesthetic and intellectual contemplation, as Schopenhauer prescribes. I've tried the base hedonism of drugs, alcohol, and junk food. I've tried the purely physicalist approach of good diet and exercise. I've considered going back to religion, but that's something I just can't commit to at the moment. I've tried living in accordance with a set of ideals, a strive towards virtue. All seem to work well at first, but I'm inevitably led back to that feeling of emptiness. Is there any real, lasting remedy to this predicament, other than death?
>>8421843
Start with the greeks.
Seriously though, you'd probably find Epicureanism and Stoicism interesting
>>8421843
>Schopenhauer
Ah, the siren of pessimism. Very tempting, but don't be tempted. He makes a few convincing arguments, but coming to terms with Nietzsche's life affirmation is really worth the trouble I've found.
>>8421863
Read a bit of them in college. Pretty similar ideas to Schopenhauer'a asceticism or even Voltaire's garden-cultivation, no? I should have the handbook of Epictetus lying around here somewhere though. I'll look through it again.
>>8421864
Been on my list for a while now.
Will I become the ultimate /lit/ meme if I walk around my college campus reading Infinite Jest?
>>8421826
Read something obscure yet still impressive, like Alamut, Ego and Its Own, or the Bible. That way you'll be a real hipster.
>>8421826
Probably not, your hands will hurt though, it's pretty heavy
>>8421826
Literally no one will even notice / know what it is
'Harry Potter' is an incredibly dull franchise. Each episode following the boy wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they fight assorted villains has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy imagery, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of special effects, all to make magic un-magical, to make action seem inert.
Perhaps the die was cast when Rowling vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; she made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody? Just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for her books. The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.
>a-at least the books were good though
"No!"
The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs."
I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
That chart. Im taking the bait
Atlas Shrugged greater than Hamlet
Atlas Shrugged
Greater
Than Hamlet
pic fuckin related
>>8421796
>God-tier
>Camus
>Rand
Bloomposter detected
>going to my wagie job
>work part time for 6 hours 3 days a week but my week consists of days ruined by work or days dreading the upcoming work days
>do a job that some silicon valley 19 year old should've automated by now (they're too busy with the college fuckfest)
>am a retailcuck
>did a stem degree and I'm smart but lazy
>see lots of Staceys and Chads
>sometimes get seen by people I went to school with and yhey probably laugh at me and think lol shouldn't he be successful
>was laughed at by girls younger than me who knew my name ("Hey look it's Anon") and j didn't even know who they were
>manager realised I've been taking 40 minute breaks instead of 15 and subtlety told me to cut it out
>>8421724
not literature
Start going to a gym and take a book with you the times you're using a stationary bike.
>>8422294
le gym meme
Hey /lit/, where is the best place to torrent or download ebooks?
>i'm from /mu/ and I buy physical books but im moving onto ebooks and dont want to pay
Come on, one of you lot prove to me this place isnt just a wasteland
gen.lib.rus.ec
>>8422019
I can see you in all these threads and it's fucking hilarious. Keep going.
How do I understand this book?
I am 50 pages in and I have no idea what I'm reading.
Are you sure it didn't get misprinted? That happens sometimes
Otherwise what you read is what you get, you can go more in-depth on how it's built but that's not required. Do you know who Marco Polo and Kublai Khan are?
>>8421683
I know who they are but do I have to read up on them extensively in order to understand? The chapters were so similar that I kept waiting for something exciting to happen but it never did. Seems like a bunch of nonsense rambling to me.
>>8421712
>do I have to read up on them extensively
No, the basics of their relationship is all you'd need to know, not quite speaking the same language as first and all that is alreay mentioned in the text I believe
>I kept waiting for something exciting to happen
If you're not enjoying it so far, it's not for you. If someday you catch yourself reading poetry then maybe come back to it
Hello /lit/, i don't browse this board often but i would like to get some helps finding some comfy books. With being comfy i mean cozy and relaxing, while still being a good plot.
What books do you think are comfy and what would you recommend?
Thank you in advance
>>8421612
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Kim by Kipling
The Magic Mountain
>Hanging out in the cool mountain air and listening to your chums argue philosophy with each other while sipping turkish coffee
Is this worth reading?
>>8421466
no i had to read it in school for AP Language and I hated it
>>8421471
Why did you hate it?
>>8421466
No, it's better to spend that time in 4chan and expressing narcissism on Facebook. Your time is too precious for a classic work of literature.
Is /lit/ the most intelligent board on 4chan?
Not since moot broke /pol/: the sewage treatment plant of 4chan broke, the dregs flooded onto other boards, and stayed.
Now we have threads about transgenderism where two sides just scream the same arguments at each other for days, instead of DFW shitposting.
>that smug totenkopf
Knowing how to read means you're smart :^)
>listening to the in our time episode on logic
>first 15 minutes has been the guests talking about Aristotle's syllogisms and stamp collecting of them
>Melvyn Bragg asks "what's the big deal? Seems simple. Was he just a stamp collector?" , obviously unimpressed but politely
>guests can only sputter some crap about it being impressive because Aristotle was the first stamp collector and he inspired other people
The emperor has no fucking clothes. Who could possibly defend this shit? What a load of pseuds.
>>8421438
Braggs position is to be the mediate the panel guests & the curious and open-minded listeners of the show.
I don't know if you've listened to many of the shows; I think they're great because of Bragg's self-imposed, teacher/pupil determination to distinguish between the knowledgeable 'experts' who parrot their university lectures and those 'experts' who can expound on his sometimes direct, jilting questions.
Bragg, yourself, and the experts on the show: everyone learning.
So, what is the big deal ;)
Tip top lel, now I'm listening to the continental analytical philosophy split and this woman guest is literally saying that continental philosophy is mental masturbation about feels. She is literally saying that.
What's your favourite In Our Time episode?
What are some good books to practice french?
I'm reading L'etranger at the moment but it's a bit boring.
>>8421361
>L'Etranger is boring
It's too short to be boring.
>>8421369
Sorry let me correct myself
>I suck at french so reading L'Etranger in french makes it boring
>>8421361
Astérix
What did you guys think of it?
One of the most reread-friendly books i think and we have so much secondary literature on it so really you could spend your whole life just with the bible
It's the 100% divine literal word of G-d. The only book you ever need.
God-tier tbs
I don't like wiki'.
Wiki doesn't like you either.
Well, what do you expect of an encyclopaedia?
my diary desu
I'm looking for a book to read that could be described as nothing.
I don't want drama or humor. I don't want romanticism or epiphany. I don't want philosophy or a point of view. I don't want nihilism or grittiness. I don't want lolsorandom or cleverness. I don't want cool or scandal. I don't want anything other than nothing.
Does such a book exist?
Yeah.
It's called "Facebook"
>>8421296
Look kids. It's another classic /lit/ zinger
The novelization of Seinfeld ?
sup /lit/,
Please recommend me a book on how to behave in environments full of machiavellian snake-people. Nonfiction is preferred over biographies is preferred over literature is preferred over pleb fiction.
inb4 running for dummies
inb4 anything by robert greene
Many thanks
Seneca- letters from a stoic. There's a lot of advice on dealing with "the crowd", keeping personal virtue and valuing wisdom and philosophy. Also Rudyard Kipling's "if" might give you an idea of where to start and to go for further reading.
>>8421257
The Book of Mark, The Epistle of St. James, The Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5 and 6
>>8421257
>environments full of machiavellian snake-people
Got your first corporate job, kid?