WHY IS EVERY FUCKING MODERN AUTHOR NOW A WOMAN? WHERE DID THE MEN GO?
Plenty of male authors that sell well, see James Patterson and so forth
>>24976037Care to elaborate?
>>24976174No.
>>24973673it doesn't pay well
>>24968349most men are philistines, this board isn't indicative of what most men are doing in their freetime.
309 days until Halloween edition.Old >>24969924
I am honestly just lost, it feels like life is not worth living once you get into the 'real world'. I have a somewhat cushy job working from home but still it eats all my time. I'm wasting my 20s building stupid software for some company I don't give a shit about. I don't even know what I want to do; I vacillate between thinking of myself as an intellectual who will go get a philosophy PhD and a man-of-action explorer who will go around the world in chase of experiences. And all the time there's just this sinking feeling of intense anxiety that I'm wasting my life. Idk what to do, I wish I knew.
Need to contaminate, to alleviate this loneliness
The funny thing is even though 4chan is characterised by outsiders as breeding jihadists and neo-Nazis and incels and neckbeards and otakus, you get more stories from anonymous people there that goes into depth about social relations and having relationships. But if you go on Reddit, it's just anonymous people complaining about dating being bad or their parents being abusive or being unable to navigate personal needs with another's desires. It seems like 4chan only plays at being socially taboo and explores the alterity of immoral anonymity.
>>24976918self comparisonagainst others& againstfantastic idealistic paradigmsoften results inSUFFERINGlrn2 seethe macrothat is hidden withinyour own micro& maybe learn someTAO&ZENComment too long. Click here to view the full text.
alsoif u focuson2 ur CURSESinstead of urBLESSINGSthen thatis wut u willSEE
Unironically, what did it teach you?
>>24969483Jesus is the greatest guy to have ever lived, died and live again :)
>>24969483That I really, really, really hate Abrahamism.
>>24971919>It taught me that 99.99999% of everyone that has ever lived or will live in the future is completely damnedYes. It is written that the road to hell is broad and the path to heaven is narrow.Matthew 7:13-14, Luke 13:23-24>including myself. We all have no hope of escaping hell. It is literally impossible to live in today's world and enter the gates of heaven.Do not despair. The fact the world still exists proves that salvation is still possible, because the day salvation becomes impossible is the day the world ends, as the world would have no remaining salvific purpose.>Every single thing that society programs you to pursue is in direct opposition to what Jesus specifically teaches.We can rejoice in the opportunity to develop the greater virtue required to overcome sin in an epoch of trial where temptation and deceit abound"But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved."Matthew 24:13
>>24976288But the Bible is literally the big book of people rebelling against their masters??? It is the opposite of slave morality
>>24969483What it taught me is almost the opposite of what people online say about it. I went in expecting a book that teaches passivity or “slave morality,” because that’s the modern stereotype. But actually reading it, the overwhelming theme is resistance to oppression and the demand for moral courage.The Bible is full of people standing up to unjust power: Moses confronting Pharaoh, the prophets rebuking kings, Daniel defying empire, Esther risking her life to stop a massacre, and the early Christians refusing to bow to Rome even when it cost them everything. These aren’t stories about being docile. They’re stories about refusing to accept evil as normal.What it taught me is that God consistently sides with the oppressed against their masters — and expects people to act with virtue, courage, and integrity even when it’s dangerous. The moral vision isn’t “be weak.” It’s “do what is right, even when the powerful tell you not to.”So if anything, the Bible didn’t teach me submission. It taught me that resisting injustice is a sacred duty, and that moral strength matters more than social status or worldly power.
Why didn't they just stop waiting and go straight to Godot?
>>24973993What in god's name is the point of reading Beckett?
>>24975510That's one of the grimmest things I've ever read.
I just got back from the Broadway show starring Neo and that other guy from Bill & Ted. I thought it was funny how shamelessly they referenced Bill & Ted throughout the show. Just not "ha ha" funny.
>>24976176Unironically more impactful than the play itself
I've written an account of my travels which lasted around six months. During this time, I tried to make myself as vulnerable as possible: hitchhiking, wild camping, sleeping in abandoned churches, travelling with no possessions etc. So that in my frail state I might enter a purely emotional state of being, and in doing so learn from my feelings more about what it is to be human, unobscured by thoughts polluted by the modern age. I'm deeply inspired by the Romantics like Wordsworth and my goal was to learn from all nature, incl my own self, as much about humanity as possible. This piece I wrote is the first finished piece of writing i've ever written and since it is such a peculiar piece I would really appreciate some feedback to really understand what sort of level it is at. I know most anons will squeal at the lack of irony and cynicism, it is purposefully earnest to the point it will put people off, but any feedback is appreciated. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Np6ZWpuBUVRu7vErExCus2OVylaXezwX/view
What esoteric practices actually work once you've learned too much and destroyed your ability to take any one scripture or symbolic system on faith? I've tried fideism and it didn't work for me. I know too much about the historical contingency of various scriptures to believe in any one uncritically. I don't think I could get myself to believe that Muhammad was God's last prophet, that this or that guy is the true occultated mahdi, that Jesus was the literal son of God, that the Vedas were divinely inspired and simply apperceived by rishis, etc. I've also tried various esoteric systems. They all seem to resolve into two aspects to me: an effectively arbitrary, historically contingent aspect and a core doctrine aspect. The core doctrine appears to be negative theology and moksha or unio mystica of some variety, and the historically contingent components appear to have required sincere, naive belief in their divine inspiration or at least their "it actually works, trust me bro" efficacy to be useful as stabilizers for achieving moksha/unio mystica. The result is that all systems just seem to me like they're saying the same thing: "realize the truths of negative theology hard enough that you are motivated to still your thoughts; still your thoughts; then moksha/unio mystica happens." I get the first part, I have tried the second part, and the third part never arrives. I've talked to people who have done the second part way harder than I ever did, and they also said the third part never arrived. And those were the rare ones. Most practitioners seemed to be doing it either because they were actually fideists in disguise (and really believed Shiva or Jesus is a real guy who just wants them to do this stuff), or they were quietists in disguise and just liked that it made them more chill. I don't want to be chill. I want to escape. I am okay with escape taking multiple lifetimes, but I would like to have a form of practice that actually convinces me that I am experiencing something that isn't discursive cognition. So far I have tried various forms of mind-quieting meditation and achieved some interesting mastery over my own nervous system (as far as I can tell), but nothing truly noetic or gnostic. I have also tried contemplative exercises, but because most of these are anchored in some symbolic system that requires sincere naive belief (like mediating on the ninety-one hats of Hatmandu), nothing happens. Lately the most success I have had at achieving something approximating noesis is meditating on the Platonic solids. At least then my mind was doing something it doesn't normally do in ordinary cognition. (I had the best success with tetrahedrons.)Anyone else in my position? Or has anyone else been in my position and overcome it?
>>24972412The only ones that work are from lost manichaen scripts in sogdian and old uyghur.
>>24972412>blah blah blahI think you need to think less of fidelity to a certain scripture like the koran or bible and more of fidelity to a lineage and textual continuum and instiution.I was in much same boat. Then I became a mildly syncretic catholic and had a kundalini experience.Guenon is cool. But too dismissive of west.
>>24973702>escapeYou must engage to escape or smthn -- le daoists
>>24972412Currently my plan is to get really into heroin
I have often felt the same way you do and 9 years of meditation, while yielding plenty of beneficial indirect results, have so far given me no access to deeper states of consciousness or concentration.At this point I have simply suspended my disbelief while also forgoing the mental leap towards a positive faith. I enjoy nianfo practice not because I am convinced of its efficacy but because I enjoy its inherent simplicity.
God I wish I was Icelandic.
>>24971039They've had quite a fewGus Gushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwuAlsdnrHEHafdis Huldhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUd1XqwyI5oEmiliana Torrini (More a singer for hire. They approached Björk to do this song)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPwZQiYsL4wSigur Roshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf1h2PMPCAoAmiinahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv21VedVXpk>>24971108Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>24971071>Political correctness does spread among scandies like wild fires.They christianized much later than most of europe althoughbeit
>>24975849That's the holiday version of a more famous commercial; it was what this classic Simpsons gag parodied.
>>24972768only a very specific kind of American, namely a white or a med American from Maine or Alaska with a large detached house and a wealthy neighbourhood, no European wants to live in the 56% areas, the Bible Belt or the California-esque lib cities: homeless edition.The only qualities that America has which Europe doesn't have are the wealth, the detached houses, and a sense of optimism only to be found in the former areas.I like America and have many American friends, but America only looks good now because your president isn't shipping millions of migrants into Martha's Vinyard... YET
>>24971071nordics and germanics confuse naive ideas of social cohesion with a sense of moral intelligence.I have no idea what's going on with Belgium though, I think they're tired of pretending to be a country.
R.L. Stine is a better writer than Stephen King for a multitude of reasons. But chiefly because he recognized that horror as a genre is a subject matter for Children.
>>24976791Bait/10
>>24976791They both suck ass who cares
>>24976791be african slave, phisiognmy of the left closes the market on sabbath so he can't sell you to the right in new england. Get sold to the south instead.... hundreds of extra years before you can drop your mixtape on soundcloud.
>>24976791King's personality and idiosyncrasies come through in his fiction, to the point where it all feels the same if you keep reading. Stine on the other hand delimited his writing to formulae because he wrote for children, and I think this made his style very clear and clean. I don't know how you would compare them directly given the difference in reading levels, but Stine to me is more impressive.
Was he right? What comes after the Faustian civilization?
>>24975242You know when you make a bunch of idiotic statements we don't actually read the whole post and skip after being assured you're a tard
>>24974207This is pseudo-orientalism and is bereft of any value besides a look into the psychology of its author. Honestly, you write like the type of person who really supports Ukraine but only does so as an extension of his negative feelings towards Rusgolia. And you seem to get your information from sensationalists on X, to boot.You could probably get more constructive discussion with a Putin-worshipping geriatric from Khabarovsk.
>>24976408But it's true. There are only three types of Russians: 1) The person who never talks about Russia because they're probably ashamed. They're probably already in exile. These are the Russians who are most similar to Europeans and the most successful. They're mostly liberal, though sometimes deeply religious Christians, but compared to the others, they're very non-nihilistic. They're not particularly good, but they're tolerable.2) a person who openly says, "I love Putin and agree with him on everything."3) A person who supposedly hates Putin but agrees with him on everything. He might even join the army.The last two types make up the majority of Russia's population. There is also a significant minority of ethnically non-Russians who want to establish an Islamic state in Russia.Unlike you, I've interacted with Russians in real life. Much more than I'd like.
>>24976408Once a sensitive person develops a strong opinion on Russia, and it doesn't matter whether the opinion is positive or not, they begin to mutate into a vicious gremlin whose new sole purpose in life is to perpetuate their own idea of Russia. Russia is the great cognitohazard.
>>24960355Sex gifs
books you read because reddit told you to
>>24975676iliad is greek marvel
>>24975360I stopped reading this book when she drugged the dude and fucked his brother at the end of Part 1. Cuck fiction is disgusting.
>>24976540PICKED UP
>>24976546if you're genuinely looking for NTR, it's really not that great.
>>24975360I thought it was okay, no interest in reading Grapes of Wrath on account of it however
Hobbes was fucking evil and fucked up everything prove me wrong.
>>24975882Read Strauss + the Greeks. Nothing but the maggotized mindset of a modern you’ve expressed.
>>24975236He's right. After you read Leviathan and really understand what Hobbes was getting at, you will realize it is the same as the sin of Cain and Lamech
>>24975902>posted from: the world
>>24975183>if it wasn't for the social contract i would immediately start raping, stealing and murdering on a mass scale and nobody could stop me, especially the person reading this bookdamn hobbes you cray cray
>>24975248christcucks and wh*toids might be, i on the other hand have a natural kinship with others like me and would have no reason to commit crimes if my basic needs were provided for>>24975348>>24975359>>24975536>>24975909>a free person (nonstandard definition of free) cannot be a slave (nonstandard definition of slave)if you actually wrote out what you intend those words to mean your argument would have no meaning>>24975670the standard attacks on hobbes are these; people aren't individuals and people aren't going to start killing or murdering if their basic wants are provided for. no idea why you're blithering on about "le power" because most ideologies accept that morality is a social construct
How should I react if somebody told me that my writing is shit?
>>24976364If their taste in writing is bad enough to call my work shit, why would I humor fucking whatever /they/ have picked as their wife?T.notOP who is a frogfag
>>24976392>>24976403it's not critics responsibility to tell you how you can improve, as an artist you have to figure it out and usually by yourself
>>24976360Being a frog poster, you react like you do to most everything, you make a thread about it on /lit/.
>>24976914Yea I bet you’re quite the artist
>>24976360My trick is to tell them that they're wrong and then secretly implement their advice.
A nine volume series originally written for Catholic students, the fairness, scholarship and objectivity of the work made it popular far beyond its intended audience. The author believes that understanding the context of philosophers, whom they were responding to, and what influenced their views, is vital to engaging with their work in good faith. The history stretches from the pre-Socratics to Sartre.Next week we begin the first volume; giving a few days of grace in case you plan to read from physical copiesIf you wish to keep track of threads or look for other resources, they will be posted on the Criterion Club server on the philosophy and math channelhttps://discord.gg/XhFGx57VKm
Why do it over discord? We have a very nice board here.
>>24976196Audiobooks when?
>>24976824We are doing it in the board unless there aren't enough takers to sustain threads
I've had these books on my shelf for years, so this might give me an excuse to read them, but I. will most likely skip books II and III.
I might participate but I fear that I will get bored during the first three books. I've already read vol.4 and was looking to read the 5 and 6 during next year
Looking for recommendations on futurist novels. It seems like their literary output was mostly poetry. There's pic rel but I don't think it has a complete English translation unfortunately.It doesn't have to be Italian or strictly within the movement, a novel with "futurist themes" would be good too.
>>24976071you didnt answer my question, you copied from a review or synopsis someone else wrote and didnt mention the prose at all. either way i had a flight so i downloaded it and read the first few chapters, its decent but nowhere near as energetic as mafarka and so far not much extended metaphor. i might give it time to make its case (after all, the second to last chapter of mafarka is by far the best).
>>24971558I really need to learn Italian. So much interesting literature
>>24976332French anon, French. Mafarka was written in French and only translated into Italian by somebody else.
>>24976385Yes yes. But Marinetti wrote other novels in Italian. Also Palazzeschi, Corra, Carli, Rosà, Papini, Bontempelli, ecc.
>>24976897All only relevant insofaras theyve been translated to french, sadly.
The purpose of literature is to entertain. Since time immemorial, from the fireplace to the stage to the big screen, the primary function of the storyteller is to entertain.Grug's tale of the hunt is entertainmentThe Iliad is entertainmentThe Oresteia is entertainmentBeowulf is entertainmentShakespeare is entertainmentFlashman is entertainmentWhy did literature turn away from entertainment in the 19th century? For example, Moby Dick is a patently boring book. It is impossible to enjoy. It is not an engaging story. You could not read it out to someone and expect to keep their attention. Yet it is praised for every other reason than being entertaining. It is praised *despite* the absence of anything compelling.In my view, someone who reads fiction for reasons other than entertainment is a decadent and degenerate. They pretend to read. It is subterfuge. They have ulterior motives. They are liars.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
I've got midwit fatigue
>>24974777Entertainment is only bad in proportion to how much it makes you forget yourself. Any arrangement of activities that puts *you* in control, in other words doesn't appeal to pure senses, or pure reason alone too much is good.
>>24974777>The purpose of literature is to entertainSays who? Consumerism is relatively new.>Moby Dick is patently boringAs opposed to the thrilling plotline of Symposion or Leviticus?
>>24975229>>The purpose of literature is to entertain>Sez who?Sez me>>24974777Boy do I have an author for you
>>24974777The claim that “the purpose of literature is entertainment” oversimplifies the entire history of storytelling. Entertainment has always been one function of narrative, but never the only one. From ancient epics to medieval sagas to Shakespeare, stories have served to transmit cultural memory, teach moral lessons, explore identity, critique power, and shape the imagination. Even the works cited as “pure entertainment” — the Iliad, Oresteia, Beowulf — were deeply tied to ritual, religion, and moral instruction. Reducing them to entertainment alone flattens what they actually were.The idea that literature “turned away from entertainment” in the 19th century also misunderstands the period. That era didn’t abandon entertainment; it expanded the possibilities of fiction. Popular writers like Dickens, Dumas, and Conan Doyle thrived, while others used the novel to explore psychology, society, and metaphysics. Works like Moby-Dick may not appeal to everyone, but calling them “impossible to enjoy” is a subjective reaction, not a universal truth. Many readers genuinely find them profound, funny, or moving. Disliking a book is fine; declaring that anyone who likes it is lying is not a literary argument — it’s projection.More broadly, fiction has always been more than amusement. As thinkers like Chesterton argued, stories shape the moral imagination. They help us rehearse virtues, empathize with others, and imagine what a good life looks like. Children instinctively use stories this way, and adults need it just as much. When fiction is dismissed as mere entertainment, we lose sight of its deeper role in forming character and meaning. A culture that stops telling rich, aspirational stories doesn’t stop needing them — it simply forgets how to cultivate them.
