Why do you put faith in metaphysical claims that can't be empirically tested? Are you just a science-ignorant caveman?
>>24989243>>24989260>>24989264Qualia doesn't have anything to do with consciousness.
>>24989264You are advancing an old idea people had before any real exploration of how the brain works. It is anachronistic, it simply does not fit what we now know about the brain. Funny how you have to shift to ad hominem and attack me rather than stick to the topic at hand.
>>24989260>with no supporting evidence for it and in itself it is entirely superfluous.Scientists are obsessed with simplification when complicated answers are far more likely, you know. This is a flaw with the modern day science paradigm I'm surprised more people don't catch on.The radio analogy is useful since it accounts for things like synchronicities and explains how mind interacts with body by order of induction, instead of the inverse being true where body exists before mind, leaving a lot more questions about the nature of our existences untouched.
>>24989267>If you want to be taken seriously, try to avoid petulant insults, it makes you look juvenile.>boohoo people the 4chan people were mean to me, reddit :^(Get the fuck over it, faggot. Can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen.>But I guess if you're wiling to say bacteria has consciousness you aren't really trying to be serious in the first place, huh?I am 100% serious, you are not. Because you are bored and trolling instead of engaging any argument presented to you in earnest faith.>Also, animals have complex brain structures and feel pain.You'd probably justify torturing them anyways, because we are "more conscious" than them (whatever that means).>Are you prepared to say bacteria feel pain?If they actively avoid danger, they seek to avoid pain. Any bacteria that hasn't done so died.>Do they have desires, hopes, and dreams?Nope, that's a strawman. I never implied that even once. That doesn't mean bacteria aren't conscious in the sense they have subjective selves. >Will you be beginning a campaign for the humane treatment of bacteria?I'd rather see secular humanist atheist scum like you get beaten over the head with a rod instead.>I'm sorry, but your position is just laughable.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>24989260>entire framework built out of whole clothYeah, like the notion that phsyical interactions in the brain spontaneously arise consciousness. If this were true AI would be conscious.>The only "signals" associated with consciousness are electrochemical signals in the brain.This is a metaphysical explanation btw. We can both be seeing the same thing in the lab but the theory behind how/why it works, the explanation, that's metaphysics. It's quite ironic how you say I pull it out full cloth when you're doing the same thing. Just because x is happening doesn't mean it supports your explanation for why it's happening. Despite both of us pulling shit out our ass my explanation is for more explanatory than yours, and it is logically congruent. Yours on the other hand is completely nonsensical, you still for some reason think that despite the brain hallicunating your experience of a physical world, with the brain being part of the hallucination, that what is the projection, the physical world, can be what's projecting that illusion. Your rebuttal to that was, "nuh huh, it's physical because it is". Given the fact you eschew metaphysics it makes sense why you seem to refuse logic, anything that you can't actually see empirically just doesn't exist, logic included. So even if your position is completely contradictory, it doesn't matter. You acknowledge there is a world beyond the senses, which according to the materialist position the brain interprets and creates a model of, that means the "model" it creates is what consciousness is. What it models cannot be the model anymore than a picture of an apple can be an actual apple. That means the physical world is only an image, a model, INCLUDING the brain. Effects can never cause themselves, illusions can never be the superimposition of themselves, what's conjured cannot be what's conjuring, and a projection can never be what's projecting. There is no way out of this, if the brain is creating your experience, it's illusory. If that experience is one of physicality, then it's necessatatively an illusion, and an illusion can never be reality nor can it be what's projecting the illusion. Illusions don't project themselves, a reality projects the illusion. The images on your screen are not the cause, they are the effect of pixels. The analogy I gave stands the test to this reasoning, consciousness (the broadcast), is the interpolation of the spirit (signal). The meatsuit resonates with the spirit and it's modeling of the non-empirical spirit gives rise to the empirical world.
Crocodile Tears edition.OLD: >>24978375
>>24989262Not reading any of your mindless vapid shit addressed at fantasies in your mind.
>>24989271Funny, I thought you were an intelligent thoughtful articulate person, and I was just a judgemental normalfag, what happened? If you had something of merit to say you'd do so. If you had control over your situation, you'd change it. You have neither, you have prosthetic faith as a crutch and you're pretending someone else's belief justifies your own. You could exercise your agency and improve, but that involves the possibility of failure and apathy is easier.Nothing wrong with having faith. Nothing wrong with having belief in a higher power. But look in your heart. You know if the perfect temptation arrived you'd fold like a house of cards the first chance you got. Your religion teaches forgiveness in spite of that as a central tenant; being a dogmatic retard and hoping that earns you nebulous eternity points by denying your humanity is fine if it's an eternal conviction or redemption for a higher purpose. That's not you. What's your purpose? Seems to me it's mostly bitching, but what do I know.
>>24989292I don't go to reddit and don't want to read your braindead reddit posts.
>>24985980Barnes & Noble is down wtf
>>24989331Fun fact: I am an ancient faggot once banned by snacks himself. Precaptcha. I only post here since I migrated from Gorgish. This is my home, in the abyssal depths of the ocean of piss, and I love it here. The irony is, you're still outsourcing your agency to excuses, making up stories exactly like you claimed I was doing. Ain't mad about it. I don't take it personal. Not going to stop me from telling you the truth. And now you know, what you do with it is up to you.
I have been reading Chinese classics lately and finished this one. Out of all of the ones I've read so far, this has to be the greatest.Has /lit/ read traditional Chinese classics like Romance of the 3 kingdoms, Journey to the west, Dream of Red Chamber, Investiture of the Gods, and others?
>>24988642>5 volume onethat is too long. i would never read a 5 volume novel
>>24986823what soft power does the US have today? everybody under the age of 30 hates the US
>>24988869Even Chinese people love the US. White men are literally worshiped in China. That's how powerful US soft power is. We're talking a hundred years of movies, sports, stars, literature, technology and so on. And English is the global language.
>>24988869And despite the US wringing their neck for the last 50 years, half of Iran is pro-US. Now that is soft power.
>>24958227I tried reading Journey to the West and it was awful. The proto-example of litrpg cultivationslop where the protagonist meditates for 100 days to learn the SuperDuperBuddhaDragonFistSnakePalm Technique that allows him to blow up the sun and turn back time. >The novel is a fictionalized and fantastic account of the pilgrimage of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who went on a 19-year journey to India in the 7th century AD to seek out and collect Buddhist scriptures (sūtras).[The first guy to get scammed by Indians lol
Updike lost me with this oneWhat was he thinking?
>>24988780I thought the characterization was phenomenal. And some real lovely bits of prose. The first and last installments are the best imo. I'd put them against any American novels
In Redux, Updike lets his affinities for cuckoldry, wifeswapping, and chubby girls take second stage to what is clearly a deeper-held and more private fantasy: when the underage hippy girl gets BLACKED as Harry reads aloud the works of Frederick Douglas, it's obvious that this is Updike's deepest and darkest fantasy put to paper.
>>24988724updike?
>>24988724What's Updike?
>>24989305nm hbu
If you look past the dense internet lingo, you will find a lot of soul and wit in her writing. Unfortunately most people here aren't smart enough to do that.
I like what I've read to be quite honest familia.
>>24989300It's the other thread that has the tranny. The chudjak looking one.
>>24989306actually not just both sexes, pretty much every group in society today has their own problems, including barely existent minorities that get gussied up and turned into cult identities. ironically that may be the one kernel of truth in the progressivist worldview, but their so-called "solutions" merely exasperate their problems and make them fall deeper into sin.
>>24989051Fuck off Honor
>>24989326>Fuck Honor from the back while she moans out excerpts from her bookYes.
A good 95% of independent bookstores aren't actually for people who read, they're for tourists and rich "shop local" liberals who like the "cozy aesthetic", and they mostly sell trash that you could get on Amazon for 50% cheaper. I hope Bezos puts them all out of business. Fuck you and fuck your locally owned chunguscore Instagram bookstore. Let only the true, used bookstores owned by some 90 year old who clearly doesn't want you there survive.
>>24986590I found this to be largely true in my area as well. There are a good bit of used book stores around me and all of them either stock absolute crap or cater to rare editions of crap. However, I came across a small shop absolutely packed with bookshelves that has a little bit of everything. The bookshelves are stacked completely full, two books deep. All books are $3.25 each, regardless of what they are. You can also get $1 trade in value for any book you bring in. Every once in a while the owner will run a 10 for $10 sale to make room for new inventory. It's a wonderful place, and I hope you find one like it.
>>24987881How many cities in America have a thriving bookstore/publisher industry?I'll give you a hint anon: one. Only one city in America. I'll give you another hint, it's not New York. If you can guess where it is I'll be impressed.
>>24986590>A good 95% of independent bookstores aren't actually for people who read, they're for tourists and rich "shop local" liberals who like the "cozy aesthetic", and they mostly sell trash that you could get on Amazon for 50% cheaper.Trump voters don't read so why would they appeal to them instead?
>>24987142What are you on about Chud? They're just active readers. There are no political dissidents there.
I work at a libtard progressive book store (failed at life) but I make an effort to maintain the best used literature (and philosophy history etc) collection within a hundred miles. Mulatto MFAromans subsidize our ability to let more obscure stuff languish on the shelves waiting for a reader
What do you read when you’re going through a really bad anxiety episode / panic attack / paranoia spiral?
>>24988436>panic attacks happen when you dare leaving the slavery drugstruly curious
>>24988329>>24988429I used to think like that too before I had an episode myself. Like, just chill, go drink some tea and take a nap, nothing is going on, etc. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it.Panic attacks usually come from holding on for too long onto an unbearable situation. I had mine when I was already in major debt, had fights with my wife everyday, then lost my job, my cat died and then covid started, all of that in a couple of months. In my mind, I would simply not recover from all of that, I was ready to die right there, not in a suicidal way, but more like giving up, I stopped taking care of myself, I couldn't sleep and it turns into a snowball. Then the fight or flight response kicks in and you can't lower your cortisol levels no matter what you do. Paranoia is like taking that panic and fixating on something, in my case I was certain that my building would fall at any moment and crush us all. I would feel it swaying in the wind, and a small crack on the painting would make me imagine huge infrastructure collapse. If I talked to anyone about it, they would be rational and say that's very unlikely, if there were major problems like that, others would notice, even in a worse case scenario, the building would be evacuated. But in my mind it was easy to disregard all of that "they don't know" and "no one is paying more attention to this as I am".The mind is powerful. Once it's gone, you look back and it's just as silly as it sounds to someone who never went through any of that. The building is still standing, I got other jobs, things change and you move on.
Read something funny, if you must read. But you can also watch a comedy or play a video game. Get warm, get cosy, get hydrated, get a snack.No medical emergency is occurring you're just fixating on every teeny tiny twinge and flutter in your body.Do a press up. Stretch. And ask yourself, what is stressing me out?If you have work then you kinda need to fake it til you get home.If you're not at work then you need to ask, seriously, why am I anxious? What am I missing to feel content?It's usually no friends or shit job at the root.The above is for your garden variety panic attack, which is mostly sudden short lasting irrational fear of losing control or dying - it's fast onset and intense.If you're paranoid then that's different... Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>24988414I once drank too much weed milk and I went through hours of psychic torment. I started watching Community but I couldn't focus on the dialogue or the plot at all. As I was watching, I started having extreme thoughts that manifested through the show itself, like visualizing the abrupt and gory death of a character, or Brie Larson suddenly getting naked and spreading her cheeks to take a huge shit.
>>24987965Exercise. Its about the only thing that helps that's not drugs.
Not sure if "boredom" is the right word. It's more like equanimity.I have no passions in life. I don't strive for anything, nor am I overly attached to the things that I do. I have hobbies and interests, and a job of course, but I don't feel any particular way about them. They're just things that I do. If I had to quit tomorrow, I wouldn't care much.I'm content with my life as it is, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have some great aspiration, some ambition that pushes me forward. Artists and writers often talk about having some burning need to do what they do. I've just never found anything so compelling.
Seek Buddhism. Let go of your ego.
Obermann by Senancour
>>24988972Go skydiving.
Is he right about religion?
>>24985554>>spends lifetime philosophising>>fails to find God>He was a dysgenic retardyou missed the ending where he did find god and realized the perennial Tat Tvam Asi as transmitted via the Upanishads and Schopenhauer, it is kind of interesting how the Upanishads got to Schopenhauer and then Schopenhauer to Nietzsche"Are we content? I am the God who created this farce!" - Nietzsche 1889 Turin
>>24986133>I'm just asking what you guys think of his criticisms of the big religions like Christianity and Buddhism, since I've been drawn to those religions and their practices for quite some time now, but Nietzsche made me want to reconsider it. I know this board is big on Nietzsche so you're probably more familiar with him than I am.he is valuable on analyzing the sick psychology of the priesthood, and the cult of the priest as an obstacle to actual religious experience, plus he had a sense of humor about it, but his excessive sarcasm gets boring at times
>>24988341
>>24988366>"Are we content? I am the God who created this farce!" - Nietzsche 1889 TurinI actually read it in an actual book ahahahsee also:http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/eng/nlett-1889.htm
>>24986133Which criticisms specifically? Your questions are vague and if one philosopher would make you reconsider religion, that'd be incredibly retarded.
>Civilizations may last for centuries and be extremely eventful; Imperial Rome is a prime example.>…>But autumn ends, and a civilization becomes a culture gone frozen in its brains and heart, and its finale is anything but grand. We are now far into what the Chinese called the period of contending states, and the collapse of Caesarism.>In such a period, politics becomes an arena of competing generals and plutocrats, under a dummy ruler chosen for low intelligence and complete moral plasticity, who amuses himself and keeps the masses distracted from their troubles with bread, circuses, and brushfire-wars. (This is the time of all times when a culture should unite — and the time when such a thing has become impossible.) Technology flourishes (the late Romans were first-class engineers) but science disintegrates into a welter of competing, grandiosely trivial hypotheses which supersede each other almost weekly and veer more and more markedly toward the occult.>Among the masses there arises a “second religiousness” in which nobody actually believes; an attempt is made to buttress this by syncretism, the wrenching out of context of religious forms from other cultures, such as the Indian, without the faintest hope of knowing what they mean. This process, too, leads inevitably towards a revival of the occult, and here science and religion overlap, to the benefit of neither. Economic inequity, instability and wretchedness become endemic on a hitherto unprecedented scale; the highest buildings ever erected by the Classical culture were the tenements of the Imperial Roman slums, crammed to bursting point with freed and runaway slaves, bankrupts, and deposed petty kings and other political refugees.When will cesaerism start in europe?
>>24987925On further consideration, this briggs character OP likely got the quotes from seems like a politics peddler of some sort. I doubt Spengler would be pleased to know his philosophy would be mobilized by legions of megalopolitan male prostitutes to advance their petty journalistic ends, but he would not be surprised.
>>24987182You know how “psychics” and “fortune tellers” really just say very general things that are applicable to almost anyone
>>24987925>And from the summarizing excerpts, I would dispute his interpretationsWhy?
>>24987994Its a matter of being incorrect you absolute nigger
>>24988106I would say Blish misappraises what Caesarism is. His characterization of ' an arena of competing generals and plutocrats, under a dummy ruler chosen for low intelligence and complete moral plasticity, who amuses himself and keeps the masses distracted from their troubles with bread, circuses, and brushfire-wars. ' is a synthesis entirely his own, I do not recall Spengler ever questioning the agency of the rulers, on the contrary he asserts their real power over such covert dealings. What I am trying to say is that this is a much more apt description of the democratic epoch than anything later than that. Likewise, I do not believe Spengler ever characterized the Second religiousness as a dishonest religiosity. In my reading, he actually reinforces how primally real the weary soul's return to the womb is. Now, he does speak of a false, consciously enjoyed religion for the civilized man. But that comes expressly before the second religiousness, it is a facet of megalopolitan civilized life, not of the second religiousness. Of course, the second religiousness, wrench exotic and archaic motifs from the world. That is correct. The rational sciences do dissolve into mystic gibberish, however this is science melting back into religion (Spengler expressly speaks of how the sciences and religion spring forth from the same seed and mirror eachother in every culture).The next section > Economic inequity, instability and wretchedness become endemic on a hitherto unprecedented scale; the highest buildings ever erected by the Classical culture were the tenements of the Imperial Roman slums, crammed to bursting point with freed and runaway slaves, bankrupts, and deposed petty kings and other political refugees.is of a deeply socialist bent. He is not necessarily wrong here, but it is deeply unimportant. And also it is also a vastly more fitting description of the Roman Republic than imperial Rome. Funnily enough the highest insulae ever built were during the late republic because Augustus restricted their height. The true urban staple of Imperial Rome was a decline in organizational complexity and a severe population reduction. This went into the Fellaheen stage where the petrified Apollonian civilization was smashed by germanic barbarians in the North and consumed by the Magians in the South.
I'm doing a Nabokov chronological read through for 2026, starting with The Real Life of Sebastian KnightAm I missing much by going straight for his english works? I study Russian and so I figure I'd prefer to read his Russian works laterAny tips for books which will help me understand Nabokov better?Which books are going to be ones which may kill my read through attempt?
>>24985803He's a literal /lit/ pseud before /lit/ was even conceived in the mind of the earth archon.>all style; no depth>thesaurus abuse>purple dense prose for the sake of being dense and intellectual>shat on authors he considered below him based on arbitrary criteria (popularity, readability, moral messages, aesthetics)>considered himself better than other writers while writing books about pedophilia>convoluted tricks for the sake of convoluted tricks>every major novel is like Ready Player One of literature: references on top of references on top of references: the true Riddler of the meme trilogy>shat on Freud while not understanding Freud>shat on Einstein's relativity while not understanding Einstein (the fourth part in Ada is the most purplest, up your own ass criticism of Einstein's space and time while being also the most retarded - it's wrong because it doesn't agree with my personal concept of time)>pedoLike, prototypical /lit/ 4channer.Compare to Joyce, who should have been an engineer. Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
I wish he was still alive so I could run him over. I've never hated a lit motherfucker like this piece of shit.
>>24986539>all style; no depthdepth doesn't mean philosophical posturing and he is highly rereadable.>purple dense prose for the sake of being dense and intellectualoutside of Ada, which has his most hateable narrating voices, his prose is much more economical. he balances out the longer more complex sentences with the opposite: "I rolled over him. We rolled over me. They rolled over him. We rolled over us.">shat on authors he considered below him based on arbitrary criteriai don't know how aesthetics is arbitrary to him saying a book isn't beautiful, especially if he's making a point of the triteness or conventionality of the style. but when critiquing he engages with a book on its own terms as well, tackling the wider points being made if there is any.>considered himself better than other writers while writing books about pedophiliawhile writing books about bad pedophiles that do bad things like all those characters in other books that do bad things.>convoluted tricks for the sake of convoluted tricksit's fun. maybe it might also be relevant that the books are about deception.>references on top of referenceshe's less allusive than joyce. especially outside of Ada (where the point is to build an alternate history with the counterparts of all those things), even in his later works. i think transparent things has a few references to romeo and juilet and that's it.>shat on Freud while not understanding Freudthe bait is too obvious here, no fun.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
what is your reading list?
>>24986497What
ruins edition FAQ:>What is worldbuilding?Worldbuilding is the process of creating entire fictional worlds from scratch, all while considering the logistics of these worlds to make them as believable as possible. Worldbuilding asks questions about the setting of a world, and then answers them, often in great detail. Most people use it as a means of creating a setting or the scenery for a story.>"Isn't there a Worldbuilding general in >>>/tg/ already?"Yes, there is. However, that general is focused on the creation of fictional worlds for the intended purpose of playing TTRPG campaigns. Here you can discuss worldbuilding projects that are not meant to be used for a roleplaying setting, but for novels, videogames, or any other kind of creative project.>"Can I discuss the setting of my campaign here, though?"If you want to, but it would probably be better to discuss it on >>>/tg/ . We don't allow the discussion of TTRPG mechanics, however. If you want to discuss stats or which D&D edition is best, this is not the place.>"Can I talk about an existing fictional setting that is not mine?"Yes, of course you can!>"Does worldbuilding need to be about fantasy and elves?"Worldbuilding, as already stated above, and contrary to what many believe, does not inherently imply blatantly copying Tolkien. In fact, there are many science-fiction setting out there, and even entire alternative history settings which do not possess supernatural elements at all. Any kind of science fiction book has an implied setting at least, which involves a certain degree of worldbuilding put into it.Old thread: >>24868365
At one point, I started to give my female characters more agency not because I'm a feminist, but because it was boring to oppress such passive, weak creatures.Now my world still has an overwhelmingly patriarchal nature embedded into its very cosmic strings, but at least the women are fighting it like doomed heroes instead of laying down and dying.
>>249883591. Have the existence of magic be officially considered a conspiracy theory and knowledge of it suppressed by the government and the mass media (who are probably working for the mages).2. Don't have the magic be flashy things like shooting fireballs or summoning giant rampaging stone giants to wreck stuff but instead subtler (but more useful) things such as probability manipulation or communing with invisible spirits to predict the stock market.
In order to make your stories less boringly predictable, and to shake them up with a little spice, here's a fun trick for (You) to try: ROLL THE DICE!Whenever your narrative reaches a point with an uncertain (or even seemingly-certain) outcome, feel free to do what tabletop gamers do, and, uh, ROLL THE DICE -- alternatively, you may draw cards (tarot or poker) or runes (futhark) -- and, then, consult the charts (or just do what I do when I GM/referee: wing it).Protagonist in melee against a swarm of goons lead by a big boss? Put their life on the line and ROLL THE DICE. You'll get fun suddenly unexpected victories or defeats, much like how that fat fuck who wrote those overwrought books that got turned into an HBO series did.Nothing quite like invoking the tears of readers by unceremoniously killing off a major character just like in Real Life (TM). You can harvest their loosh, and your readership will expand as the controversy draws wider interest in your "exciting" tales.
>Mages are isolationist and maintain a masquerade because.....they really just don't like normals.>The entire society is built on a petulant hatred of people who can't create Personal Realities.>They hide from normals because they think the latter would keep begging them for magical cures.>Completely ignore disease and famine they could easily stop because they feel they shouldn't be asked to help normals.>Only care about getting stronger by fighting supernatural creatures, other Mages, and Satan's emissaries.>See normals as peasants whose only purpose in life is to make food and other goods for them. Refuse to pay for it because it would imply they're equal, so they express it as tribute in return for granting protection from bad luck and foreign enemies.I wanted them to be a bunch of obnoxious wankers that need to be humbled.
>>24988611>insert judaism into your world
We always have threads about the best translations of x, but what are the worst and most disappointing translations you have read?
"Aversion to happiness, also called fear of happiness, refers to "the subjective experience of negative affect (e.g., fear, anxiety, guilt, or discomfort) when experiencing or expressing happiness, which stems from the belief that happiness may lead to negative consequences".">"Empirical studies show that fear of happiness is associated with fragility of happiness beliefs, suggesting that one of the causes of aversion to happiness may be the belief that happiness is unstable and fragile. Research shows that fear of happiness is associated with avoidant and anxious attachment styles. A study found that perfectionistic tendencies, loneliness, a childhood perceived as unhappy, belief in paranormal phenomena, and holding a collectivistic understanding of happiness are positively associated with aversion to happiness. A study found that high perfectionism, low self-esteem, and low meaning in life contribute to fear of happiness."Any books on this issue?I have always avoided feelings of real happiness. I don't really know why. I'm not sure if it's a generally subdued reaction to stimuli, or an indifference towards outward displays of happiness, or something else. I see people who smile broadly, their eyes wide, who are energetic and full of ambition and optimism, who enjoy embracing life and the adventures and pleasures it offers, and I don't feel naturally compatible with them.
>take schizo bait post>add "board relevant" tag>spam it everywhereI cannot tell if what the world considers ‘happiness’ is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness.
The problem is that you're wrapped in your ego. Let go of your ego and stop identifying with thought; then you can be happy. The Buddha figured this out millennia ago: everything is impermanent but you can stop being miserable about this by following the eightfold path. Stop trying to pathologize yourself and telling yourself all of these false narratives about happiness aversion.
>>24988947don't listen to this lying bald niggaread Tao Te Ching
>>24988942I used to think like this, but some people I know are intuitively orientated towards experiencing life in certain adventurous ways (e.g., hiking) and they obviously and genuinely derive pleasure and happiness from doing that because it's just something they are attracted to. I find myself not really drawn to doing that kind of thing, but I'm not sure if it's because something is broken in my internal compass, or what. I mean you hear about Schopenhauer playing the flute, etc; even the most pessimistic shut-ins seem to have something they enjoy doing. For me I just feel completely adrift.
>>24988954I started to become happier once I dropped the sensation that I needed to do activities that others can see, and stopped using the standard by which I evaluate others works and decide I like them or not, to be the standard with which I evaluate my own life. I feel proud about many small things in my life, they all accumulate towards a good baseline real happiness, and not the "at least I'm not suffering kind", a real "I feel in control", sometimes I look at myself and just smile, and on the best days I write good things (still, only for myself, not for others) and feel proud. Here are a few things that I enjoy about me : I take pride in understanding how I think and how I know what I know.I take pride in my ability to work hard on things I love, although I don’t love many things.I take pride in what i see, in people, in art, in life.I take pride in knowing what I want, from art, from people.I take pride in living and promoting life, not slavery. or some things that I love : Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Talk about poems/poets you like, post your own work, and critique others.
>>24950975Bumpaaaaa
>>24987347Seems like they just hate her and her beauty for betraying them. The imagery paints a scene like the birth of Venus, the point is she's pretty.
Waltz MacabreI bend down to kiss your hand, and it smells of musty earth and memories. Your ballgown is streaked with dried blood, your flesh pokes through the tattered dress in purple lesions and steady decay. “May I have this dance?”We whirl with abandon; we move in perfect harmony. I hold you close and stare into opaque eyes, a sunken smile is stretched like stitches over weathered skin.I waltz with the corpse of our life. Questions wriggle in your flesh like worms, answers lock your limbs in rigor mortis. You are all I have left, my revenant. My shoes are muddy, my flashlight is catching dust and carrying shadows. I have you beside me once more. Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
It’s cattle, it’s alive, it’s here, ok I am a city boy, leave me aloneHey we don’t see a lot of city boys up hereLet me in, it’s alrightWho keeps honking from the other sideAh, this stupid fenceMan – what is there to be donePoor, poor thingsThey turn around and just look horrible
>>24951252If that was not to your taste, here's a translation I made of Friedrich Schlegel's sonnet "Das Athenaeum" (1800) [from the same, penultimate meanwhile].
