Stoner

>>9322993
Nah I don't think so

>>9322993
No, it wasn't. If you weren't screaming with indignation at the waste by the end, something is wrong with you

>>9322995
>>9323035
I really think you guys didnt get it.
Are you guys americans? Serious question

No, serious talk, I get why would you get that kind of feeling from this book, but I really think that wasnt the author's (absolute) intention.

There's a kind of tenderness which permeate both the writing and the story of Stoner's life that makes it worth it. He loved, he teached, he shouldered his sorrows, he created something and the he "lived" his death.
There's some good in that and you can read it. There is the light of the sun trough the windows.

>>9323059

I am not American.

He was afraid. He stayed in the University for his entire life, because he didn't have what it takes for the outside world. He was the ultimate product of his environment - without agency, without will.

Indeed, there was good in his life. Notice, though, that he never actively sought out the good. He always came across it by chance, and was very close to losing it.

The real sadness, in my opinion, that same lack of agency. Like a pawn, you just keep moving with your life, doing what the environment requires of you, content to grasp at the little strands of happiness that float by while you're drowning.

I felt intense rage when I finished the book, along with an intense feeling of grief. I grieved for his life - the lack of it.

>>9323073
Look at this guy being wrong lol

>>9323076

Yes, the book is only what the author rigidly intends it to be. The emotions you feel while reading it, the memories it triggers, they don't mean anything.

>>9322993
>worth
spooky

>>9323073
I thought the ending was actually beautiful, especially the kids going across his lawn. it's like yeah, he failed, but maybe they'll get a chance to do better. and the way he picks up his one little shitty book, basically his life's work in one aspect. it's not much, but it's his

>>9323059
*he taught

>>9322993
>tfw my life will guaranteed not be that much better, and 99% of all lives are like this if not much worse
How to cope with this fact, boys?

>>9323059
I got what he was doing and I felt that way at first, but after a while I saw that, if you take Williams' brush, you can paint just about anyone's life as 'worthwhile'. That's when I realised it was nihilism. Taoist-style, aesthetic nihilism with leaves and sunlight, but nihilism. It's far more painful, far less soothing to one's conscience and general sense of ease, but, for people who prefer their veins with blood in them, it's necessary to decide: his life (as with most people's lives) was not worth it. I'm wilfully resisting John Williams, and rejecting his statement.

>>9323233
by accepting it like stoner

>>9323233
It's not that hard to do better than Stoner. Book a few nights in a hostel in a famous foreign city, go discover some beauty. Write something about what you see and keep it somewhere people will find it.

>>9323233
>>9323245

By actively acting against it. You don't have to live a better life than his - you just have to try to.

File: 51BF610F-6DF3-4550-9B3C-60BF1C3C5568-15939-000010821389CA9C.jpg (4KB, 136x181px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 136x181px

>>9323250
>>9323252
>implying man can win against the world

>>9323376

every man should makes his life, in its entirety, the attempt to do so

>>9324427

This.

>>9322993
The movie of this is going to be horrible.