Books on how to stop being a narcissist?
>>24785186Who's decide who's intelligent or not?
>>24784511If you were a narc you'd be claiming you aren't one.
>>24784511Why do you want to change it so badly? And do you think it's something that can be changed so easily? Literally, even if someone takes an addictive psychiatric drug that causes a direct reaction in the brain, an anxious person continues to feel anxiety. Do you think reading a dozen or so books will actually fix your narcissism?This world benefits those with narcissism. Everyone wants to become the CEO of themselves and pursue profit, and "empathy," for some reason, has become a political term. The news reminds us every day that kindness gets you nowhere. Imagine a fantasy world where "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" becomes law, and the government provides basic income to manic pixie dream girls. You, with your narcissism, have that level of "privilege."I've lived my whole life as a Beta Male, and I believed that even if it doesn't go as far as narcissism, I still need to develop assertiveness to function in society. With that mindset, I read about 900 books. It didn't help at all. I still talk like a redditor, and it only made me more annoying.
>>24785392The ones who use proper grammar.
>>24785498>This world benefits those with narcissismit really doesn't. actual narcissism isn't just "being selfish" or whatever you think it is, it's a form of selective retardation. successful narcissists can compensate for it with high iq or some other advantage, but it remains a handicap. low-to-middle-iq narcissists are essentially lolcows.
by Pynchon, so I imagine someone here is actually reading it, and not just faking an opinion based on hearsay or a glance at paragraph one.After a slow opening few pages, I'm getting into the good stuff - Germans versus Italians in the depresion era, radioactive cheese substitute, the origins of the FBI. It doesn't go for extended description, but it's funny, and the metaphors are pointed in cool directions.
> plate glass window reflections, penumbras of lamposts and the ends of trolley lines to the edges of suburbs still officially to be named - haunting given stretches of sidewalk just as the shops close down and the girls come out dazy and chattering, cigarette smoke and perfume in the slowly more intensifying light of the evening street, immersed too deep in lives that [he] could never quite see any plausible way to step into
>>24785397Maybe literature isn't for you.
>>24785551I'd fit right in with the crowd here on /lit/ then, wouldn't I?
He's just taken the job, I'm excited
>>24785561>the crowdKek. Already do, anon
What kind of fucking cuckoldry is this
>>24782078Holy filtered
>>24782212my dick.
>>24782078think of it this way:Job is an upright man because he's self employed and his "just in case" sacrifices are quarterly estimated taxes, He trusts the government, yet he gets fucked at the end during spring tax season and god and satan are politicians
Reminder that Jobs are called Jobs because God is punishing you for just existing and laughing the whole time. Better get to sleep so you're not in late tomorrow, wagie.
Try reading the New Testament, pure basedslop.
What spawns your desire to read? Also, where do you read? Do you have a comfy spot at home? Do you read in your bed?
>>24782862I have been reading since I was 4-5 years old. I can't really speak for my motivations back then, but now it's just something I need to do for the health of my soul. Kind of like how people need to spend time out in nature every once in a while. I suppose a part of it is escapism, but I feel like another part is a search for something. I don't like to waste time on non-fiction, I'm more interested in the things people fantasize about, the dreams they construct, what their hearts reach for. As for where, I definitely prefer to read in the peace and quiet of my home, especially in the early mornings, sipping coffee. But I'll also read anywhere I have a lot of time to sit and wait, like on a train or wherever.
I visualize a lot, so reading a book feels like watching a movie, but it's like a very chill movie because there's no sound, no noise, it's like watching a movie on mute but the sound part is mentally created inside your head instead of being loud noise in your ears am I making sense here fellas? Also escapism. Also, obviously, because it's fun, entertaining, interesting etc depending on the book. Also because it feels very productive. Like, 1h of reading feels way better than 1h of anything else. Time flows differently. One of those hard-to-explain things.
>>24784609Wrong
>>24782862You will die never knowing why I read, but I will tell you that I usually read for an hour or two in the morning, preferably on my comfy couch, or in bed before going to sleep at night.
>>24782862Originally because I’m nosy and I need to know what the hell everyone is raving about.But now it’s a source of comfort. I’ve read a lot of things that help me cope with my daily life and the stresses I encounter. Before that I was just really anxious lol.
Which epic poems have you read, anons? And what do you think of the epic? Can epic poetry be written in the modern period? Think ‘A’, Cantos, Paterson, and Omeros.
>>24785187Why? What are some good Arabic epics?
>>24785302Nibelungenstrophe with strong dadaistic admixtures, to ideally span the three great European ages
>>24785343nibelungenstrophe in latin? you're mad!
My tier list of those I've read:1. Iliad2. Paradise Lost3. Argonautica4. Odyssey5. Beowulf6. Death of Arthur7. Faerie Queene8. Aeneid
>>24770435I’ll try it thanks
In a recent study published by John Hopkins University students were asked to write a translation of the first few paragraphs of Bleak House in clear, modern English. They were given dictionaries, access to the Internet, and as much time as they needed. Despite this, 49 of the 85 students failed to do so. Sentence after sentence, they could not grasp what Dickens was saying; i.e., they were incapable of figuring out who or what a sentence was talking about, did not understand the imagery or metaphors, could not translate long or complex sentences into shorter, simpler ones, and could not identify the main ideas being described. As such, the researchers deemed this group to be "problematic readers"
>>24784045>very mechanical and coldmy kind of literature
>>24784049this is just the style of the time, which we generously do not formally refer to as 'deliberately embarrassing'
I use a dictionary when I encounter words I dont know, which the participants didnt do. So that alone makes me a better reader than these chucklefuck pinko commies.
>>24781423Its has a famous governance and international relations school that is located in DC.
>>24781402The part in parentheses isn't actually in the page and also false.
>George R. U. Fartin
>Just Kidding Rowling
>John R. U. Talkin
>O. P. Faggot
Do anyone else not imagine visuals when they are reading? Like are you supposed to be so cucked that you let your mind create visuals described by another person? When authors describe things, I just take their word for it, and I will not allow an author to control me or tell me what I am supposed to be imagining.
>>24784052So picking up a book with somebody else's stories an ideas is somehow not being cucked, only imagining the things described? Idgi
>>24784052I enjoy directing scenes in my mind while reading fiction. It can be hard when I don’t know the setting, but I’ll look up things up or look at fan art if I need to. It helps a lot with remembering small details.This too >>24785093
>>24784052>I will not allow an author to control me or tell me what I am supposed to be imagining.Sometimes I will imagine a character however the fuck I want if the author's description doesn't meet what I think the character should look like. Nothing too egregious, just sometimes I think the physical appearance I imagined is better.
The thing about this is that it's very hard to try to explain to somebody else how you perceive mental images in your head. That being said, I do visualize everything I read, subconsciously, I don't do it on purpose, it just happens. Sometimes it's pretty vivid, sometimes it's like remembering a dream, or those first dal.le pics. Reading a book feels like watching a movie to me. Afterwards, if I remember a certain part of the book, I don't remember specific sentences or how it was written, I remember how it looked in my head. It has its ups and downs. Since I mostly read prose and fiction it's fun to "watch" the characters doing stuff, but when there's a lot of introspection my mind stops visualizing (because you're just reading about mental thoughts of characters) and if I don't focus enough I lose track of the text. Like, I'm so used to visualizing while reading that I use it to make sure I understand what I'm reading, and when there's nothing to visualize it's harder for me to understand stuff. Anyone else? Or am I nuts?
>>24784052>posting images made by another man>using words invented by another man>going on a website created by another manDude...you're a sissy cuckhold.
All there is is art which means there's nothing for art to even mean. It literally peaked in the caves of Europe 30,000 years ago. The only last wonder left in the world is the paranormal so I would like to write solely about High Strangeness in one last vainglorious attempt at writing anything worth reading as we enter the worst and possibly last period of humanity. I'm literally schizo and the paranormal is literally real (but not for everybody).
Yea man i never really thought of that (because my thoughts are relatively coherent)
>>24783593The paranormal is the grime on perceptual reality. Pretty meaningless itself. What is there for me out there?
>>24783590>art peaked in cave paintingsArt Peaked in internet porn.
Bump
>a tortured Jewish genius who suffers from being so much hotter and smarter than everyone around him drives a white gentile beta male to suicide by fucking his wifeGive me one good reason to believe that these people aren't spiritually Indian.
We seem to be doing pretty good without God, Mr. Mustache Man. Where’s all this spooky world-destroying nihilism you kept telling us about?
>>24785143Everywhere around you, you've just accepted the world-destroying nihilism as the new normal.
>>24785143>Declares God to be dead>Goes mad
>>24785143The past 400 years of human history is the story of the white man finding unimaginable success by becoming secular liberals and the rest of the world coping about it including other white people themselves. When will they just admit the truth?
>>24785143I think the “Nietzsche thought the death of God was bad actually” meme has gone a bit far, the Gay Science’s version of God is dead makes it pretty clear that Nietzsche welcomes a world without theism, any idea that he was really saying “God’s death could have some teething pains so we should just stay Christian” is retarded
>>24785143>We seem to be doing pretty goodi disagree
If John Keats hadn’t died from tuberculosis at such a young age and was still alive today, what would he write about?
>>24784387> what would he write about?Tfw no gf
>>24784387Hopefully he would finish Hyperion
If Keats hadn't died, he wouldn't be remembered. He fit the sensitive young artist male who dies a tragic early death because he's so sensitive archetype that was popular in literature and art at the time. His poetry is mid.
>>24785211Do you think anyone would remember YOU if you died right this instant?
>>24785228Yowsers. I never thought of it like that.
Based edgelord lit
>>24782392>second best
>>24781231My Twisted World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91gT68xeDMM
>>24781661LOL, I remember Peter Sotos (the pervert who appears in Apocalypse Culture who writes about serial killers and child pornography) defending Adam Parfrey and talking shit about Trump in his latest book. I always imagined that the edgelords of yesteryear would naturally lean towards the MAGA movement, but apparently that was only the case with Jim Goad.I would really appreciate it if someone could provide me with the PDF of Apocalypse Culture 2. I've been looking for it for years. In exchange, I'll give you a link to Peter Sotos' entire bibliography in PDF format (which isn't much and isn't recommended; I find Peter more tedious than “edgy”).https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yo5Neai-MiNlqQHj-vg0whz7pLliBYj1
>>24784606>only the case with Jim GoadBoyd Rice is very pro Trump. Sotos is a gross pedo
So it was all in Runciter's head, is that it? And was the real villain Jordy or Pam? And why is reincarnation mentioned so much? What's the point? Help me I'm dumb.
From what I remember, the protagonist is dead and in this world people can be kept in a stasis between life and death. That means that people from the outside can sort of contact them but not really. The protagonist is in this stasis world and it's being slowly corrupted by some fuckass boy that turns everything back in time. It turns out the boy is some form of entity and the protagonist used Ubik to fix things. If you read Androids dream of electric sheep, you'll find that he talks about kipple. At the end he throws a curveball insinuating that Runciter is also in this stasis chamber, but from what I read PKD rushed the ending.
It's been a while since I've read it, but the ending with Joe chip on the coin was pretty shit and was just a tacked on WHAT A TWEEST
War is le… good?
>That passage just before the Spring Offensive where he talks about the energy in everybody and how they all felt that the fate of the world was to be decided>That passage where his platoon is completely wiped out by artillery and he's left sobbing in a shell hole>The passage where he finds his brother alive>The passage where he walks back to his lines when everyone around him is being captured after being shot through the lung.Absolute fucking kino. As close to a modern Iliad we will ever get.
>>24782635what war did you read it during?
No, it's more like: >All Quiet On the Western Front: war is hell :(vs>Storm of Steel: war is hell :D
>>24783848I've gotten a little more out of it after reading the ww2 diaries but I tend to agree. it's one of his early works and it shows. maybe you had to be there.for me it's eumeswil > glass bees > heliopolis for the three I'd recommend without reservations
>>24782656>99% of it is dry description of troop movements and logisticsSounds kino
