I remember school and university, where trying to get good grades and paying attention in class made teachers and other students think I'm a nerd, when I would actually just study, say, math on my own, with a tutor, in class, read about it online and still barely pass exams and testsI easily learned english as a child, but when it came to learning a third foreign language in school I was very below average, one of the worst students in my group, it was humiliatingI've now tried to learn a few languages (French, German, Latin, Spanish, Russian, probably a few others I've forgotten too) and I've struggled with them a lot, even studying every day for 3 hours (I did manage to keep up that pace) would generally not net me anything. it doesn't help that there are so many charlatans in the language learning "hobby space" that you don't even know what "method" to use while learning a language. probably the worst thing is that language learning communities are full of intelligent people who have many languages under their belts and this is their special interest and you can't compare yourself to themI like reading books and don't really like video games or TV, so I spend a large chunk of my free time reading. I know a bit about history, philosophy, things like this which automatically make other people think you're intelligent, but it's a bit of an illusion and I've disappointed pretty much every teacher I've had in my life. in general I am a pretentious failure who is well read enough, knows about history, philosophy and thinks he's intelligent, so I can discuss things with other people, but honestly, with the philosophy that I've read it's more that I memorized the logic but don't actually understand anything at all. it would take one actually intelligent person who's read enough as me to show that I'm just a complete fraud and retardI'm too stupid and lazy to ever learn another language
>Realizing I'm not well read or pretentious, just intelligent.>Don't limit myself in any interests.>Never memorize anything but understand everything intuitively yet can't put it into satisfactory language.>Everyone thinks I'm boring and stupid and struggles to talk to me because I'm just a schizoid who can't survive in the social worldI am lazy and slow but I think that's normal.
>>25181396If you can't speak of it then you don't understand it brainlet.
>>25181376Sounds like Estonia. The people who got rich there 30 years ago where low IQ pedophile psychos willing to fuck people over.Sold privatized property.Stole from new founded banks.Credit fraud.Money laundering. Drug and pedo deals. Extortion and "roofing" (you do legitimate business or art, then a vend comes and starts demanding shares for "protection." Now you have a gopno "roof" over your head).Every moderately intelligent Estonian citizen, whether Russian or Estonian, left the shithole the moment the Iron Barrier fell down. Now its nepotistic corrupt right wing nationalist racist pedophile retards running the show. And no, it's not a meme. It's reality.The fact anon is thinking becoming rich means intelligent shows the inbred degraded poor and third world tier thinking of these countries which, like jeets, think life is all about competition and scamming and being better than your neighbour (and which is the reason why they're poor in the first place).Welcome to Eastern Europe, post USSR.
>>25181345>failing at the gamewe aren't even playing the same game
>>25181406>actually, they are not smart, they are privileged by the system>actually, they are not smart, just immoral>actually, you're American and probably richSo far, I fail to see any substantial arguments from the self-proclaimed intellectual camp.
>greatest writer at the time of his death>had a vast library containing tens of thousands of books on every subject under the sun>reached advanced proficiency in math and physics for fun (a member of SFI said he matched most professors in those subjects)>had a large circle of friends from every discipline; his best friend was the inventor of the quark>didn't own a computer, use a smartphone, or have any internet presence whatsoever, not even an email addressCan we just admit that computers are the bane of creativity?
>>25181318>We were talking about blood meridian here a decade agoahh, fond memories of posting on /lit/ in the 20teens when nobody irl had ever heard of blood meridian. /lit/ worshiped that book and then it got popular and now everyone knows that it always was and always has been shit and reddit and cringe and blah blah blah. /mu/ has death grips, we've got cormac
>>25180807Oh I see. The lovefest that enwraps Cormac has nothing to do with the ineffable delights of his prose, such as there are, but rather the emblems of his intelligence. Once again posters judge a writer's worth by extraliterary status signifiers.
>>25181389As is the case with every board centred around an artistic medium, they like someone or something only if it/he/she meets their criteria in being “based”, to say nothing of their artistic quality.
>>25181359You don't seriously believe /lit/ popularized Blood Meridian, do you?
>>25181219I would like you to know that i read you entire post.I can't say I particularly enjoyed it, but your elaborate fantasy about mailing a letter is now in my head.
Faggots are made everyday.
>>25181405Pnly collecting books you havn't read is for pretentios faggots
>>25181405Today’s faggots are too dumb, they just watch tik tok all day
Why does it seem that all anyone on this board wants to write now is either fantasyslop or sci-fislop?I have seen some decently skilled writers throwing themselves away writing the most derivative, infantile, autistic, Royal-Road-coded shit imaginable:>Narrowing his eyes at the approaching hoard of T’zendians, Klayden clenched his fist and summoned forth a burning shadow spear…Just stop! Is this all because you’ve watched a small handful of fat guys be moderately successful producing this gutter oil? Why can’t you write something real? Do you have no real life experience to draw from?Just downright right peculiar, thas’ all.
>>25181062Who would want to write about our faggot ass society? The ones who do (women) either write smut or woe-is-me-I'm-not-white DEI slop.
>>25181062>>Narrowing his eyes at the approaching hoard of T’zendians, Klayden clenched his fist and summoned forth a burning shadow spear…What's wrong with this sentence though?
>>25181282>guise the divine comedy was actually le heckin you have to go back
Not me, desu. I want to write historical fiction mystery slop.
>>25181062because I can add cool shit. The themes are abstract anyway, the setting can be separated so long as you have something grounded enough for a story to happen in.>>25181068haven't read a single one of these (though I intend to read Dune but idk)
No, its not that I don't understand, or I get bored, or I'm not cultured enough. Quite the opposite. Dostoevsky is fake-deep slop for midwits. I cannot comprehend how an actually intelligent individual could like his works. It seems to me that its more normies circlejerking to seem cultured.
>>25180403Uh… uhhhhhFuck you fag, YOU’RE worthwhile
>>25179582Books really don't seem like your thing. Stick to video games and anime.
>>25180530Dosto is the anime of literature.
>>25180545And yet he's still literature.
>>25177776>He doesn't find Stepan Trofimovich and Varvara Petrovna hilariousEveryone point and laugh
Why do people put these stupid plastic things in the pages of their books? I just bought this at the thrift store, every page has like 5 of them, and they abruptly stop at page 90.
>>25174000checked>>25174007its probably one of the first books shes tried to read that isnt smut anon its not her fault she grew up in a social media environment that normalizes this performative autism. im sure she'll flip through this book in 5 years and cringe at herself
>>25169995>every page has like 5 of them, and they abruptly stop at page 90.Lol happened with my copy of Mao's red book>first section of the book almost completely highlighted with pencil along with margin notes that were just random words or even just an exclamation mark>these scribbles all but completely disappeared by chapter two>the section "on women" is ince again almost completely covered in scribbles
>>25170016This has to be purposefully comedic. It is such a good punchline
>>25173800>Greatest superpower in history of humankind>Dosent use c*rsiveReally makes you think.
>>25170060
Recommend some horror short story anthologies, preferably multi-author
Thoughts on That All shall be Saved?
>>25181146>If God doesn't want anyone to suffer AFTER death, why does he allow suffering DURING life?If God so loves SINNERS that they don't suffer death, why do GOOD MEN AND WOMEN suffer on earth? Why doesn't God get rid of all war, diseases, poverty, starvation, etc.?If NO ONE deserves to suffer, why does God allow suffering on earth?OP has yet to solve this, but he won't, because he's SHIT>>25181370Why would an all-loving God allow suffering on EARTH? Answer me that, SHITHEAD.
>>25181298Romans 11:26a; 29; 32>and in this way all Israel will be saved. >for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.>For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.>>25181360Sorry there were too many typos so I decided to make a new post. But what I wanted to emphasize was the call of Israel being irrevocable and leading to certain salvation for Israel, to serve as further support for the idea that Paul and Matthew's understanding seems to be at odds. Romans 8:30 seems to imply that everyone God calls will be justified and glorified, while Matthew seems to say no to that.
>>25181390>RomansPaul's fan fiction means less than nothing to me.
>>25181384It seems like there are a dozen problem of evil threads on this website each month, so why are you forcing the topic in a universalist Christian thread? Universalists at least have a smaller problem of evil because the problem is temporary.>>25181399Why do you suppose Paul is the fanfiction rather than Matthew? The usual estimated order of writing is Paul then Mark then Matthew, and Mark doesn't disagree with Paul nearly as much as Matthew often seems to.
>>25181407>why are you forcing the topic in a universalist Christian threadAnswer the fucking question.If God doesn't want anyone to suffer AFTER death, why does he allow suffering DURING life?If God so loves SINNERS that they don't suffer death, why do GOOD MEN AND WOMEN suffer on earth? Why doesn't God get rid of all war, diseases, poverty, starvation, etc.?If NO ONE deserves to suffer, why does God allow suffering on earth?
Is there a quintessential Napoleon biography?
Read this one when you're finished with the others as well.
>>25169460Emil Ludwig's is pretty good
>>25181255>englishman comparing napoleon to Hitler I’m sure this is a fair and reasonable take and not just ethnic and nationalistic seething
>>25181291Eh? It's a fairly well trodden practice to compare tyrants from different eras.
>>25181316Hitler is definitely a thing that people mak reasonable comparisons to and not just something brought up as a hysterical smear most of the time.
What philosophy should I read to understand the female mind?
>>25179343That looks like a twink on the cover
>>25178902>woman momentyou gave yourself away twice in one sentence
>>25179497Cope
Ass and tits
>>25178879Read Ayn Rand.Every place she goes wrong is what's wrong with the female mind. See: her weirdly hypergamous men, her theory of love and sex, her aesthetics.
Chtorr editionHere we discuss any kind of science fiction and fantasy.>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs):https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb>Archive:https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg
>>25180240I wonder how many just plain average fantasy series from the 80s and 90s just slipped through the cracks and ended up forgotten?
>>25180485Yes, Deadhouse Gates ended up being one of my favorite fantasy reads in the last 10 years, the Chain of Dogs is legendary stuff.
>>25180485It's north bad, but it's not worth it either. Next book is set on a completely different continent with completely different characters.
>>25181226With good reason?
>…The most tragic case of a continuation novel in recent memory is likely that of Robert Jordan’s tetradecalogy The Wheel of Time, the last three novels of which were finished after Jordan’s death from a rare blood disease by graphomaniacal Mormon Magic: The Gathering enthusiast Brandon Sanderson, who makes between $10 and $55 million a year for his own best-selling, ponderous fantasy novels. Hand-selected by Jordan’s widow to complete The Wheel for Tor Publishing Group after, no kidding, auditioning via obituary, Sanderson’s three volumes exchange Jordan’s hard lore regarding the Aes Sedai, Darkfriends, and the prophesied Car’a’carn for stupefied descriptions of buildings (“stonework and wood”); sentences beginning with “women are like . . .”; and so much reliance on plot over prose that people are often “perked up,” described as “tanned,” and, according to one intrepid blog, sniff in disdain 75 times in 978,460 words (which may not sound like a lot, but The Lord of the Rings apparently tallies 28 sniffs total)….
"classic" or transformative books you were tricked into reading that were just shit? I'll start
>>25181329He was one of the first popular non-white non-western fantasy authors.
>>25181354Borges was white and Argentina is in the Western hemisphere.
>>25181354Borges was an Englishman with family from Stratfodshire. His forefathers were the Saxons and Jutes of Denmark.
>>25181319Let's see if you got it: Explain The Circular Ruins
>>25181319You’re just retarded OP (and a faggot, naturally). Though, like Borges, you have shit taste. Unfortunately unlike Borges, you can’t write.
Either regularly or now and again count>Granta>DIAGRAM>New Yorker>Ploughshares>Paris Review>Heavy Traffic
I've enjoyed a few stories from Volume 0, but it's mostly foidslop as you'd expect
I'm surprised that The Stinging Fly is so good, but I guess I shouldn't be. Nation of poets and writers, I guess. Irish journal. Has a good press attached to it to
>>25180310I've seen the Stinging Fly recommended before (by the author of Brat when he was posting here), but I don't think I've read anything they've published. Anything good of theirs online you could link?
>>25180976Yeah, this one. "Let's Go Kill Ourselves" by Colin Barrett. >https://stingingfly.org/2014/07/24/lets-go-kill/GREAT story. The magazine decided to publish his first book of stories (picrel) off its strength and it was fucking killer.
>>25181182Thanks, that was great. I remembered I've had a copy of Young Skins on my computer for a while, and probably heard of it on here. Were you recommending it before? And my own Irish rec would be Nobber by Oisin Fagan, which I really enjoyed last year. Brat by Gabriel Smith is good too.
I cried at the end of The Road, but was completely indifferent to the fate of the Kid, or anyone else in Blood Meridian.
Same here, but the characters are completely different. Why would anyone shed a tear for a band of marauders except for their mothers?
>>25181055do you look like that
the kid dosent have a contrasting philosophy to Holdens, hes just slightly less evil. nothing about him would warrant sympathy
>>25181055I was sad about the bear
>>25181055They’re all just a bunch of evil cunts in BM. That all being said, I don’t care for anyone in either book. Glanton, he’s cool.
But if you think the writing is extremely amateur then are you implying you could do better? That you can actually write something that entertains a lot of people? Can you really, amateur?
>>25181251>>25181113I get it. You hate /lit/, many people on this site do. We hate each other here too; you should go back to /v/ or whatever and hate each other over there.
>>25180884>tfw too smart to be rich and successful
>>25181008heck YEAH, the Beatles ROCK(upvoted, btw)
>>25181301Not trying to be cynical, but I believe that high intellect and high empathy is really a curse, especially when society is so degenerated. The cultural environment that's being continuously formed around you by less and less intelligent people is more and more demoralizing and it needs nearly superhuman optimism to find a will to create something by yourself that's valuable by your standards.
>>25181307They’re not the BEST band in the WORLD, EVER, for nothing.>>25181340>high intellectI’m not doubting you, but having that own sentiment about yourself can prove to be more of a hindrance than you’d think since it more often than not comes with a hint of conceit. There are plenty who exist with the same level of intellect, if not higher than you. Once you understand this, you may very well be able to push forward because you can learn from other likeminded individuals more about yourself. I’m not sure if you’re an autodidact or not, but if the latter, my point becomes weaker. Still, convincing yourself that you can do something brilliant without putting that to the test feels empty.
