/lit/ - Literature

It's really a shame since there are so many deep and enriching things we could be talking about instead of dealing with these psueds. Books really are this limitless treasure trove of knowledge and it's just kind of sad that so many people here choose to reject it and play these dumb 'my tribe, your tribe' games with everything. But, I'm sure there are still some of you who want to gain wisdom and grow, so let me share my experience with books and hopefully you can take something from it:

Ever since I got back into reading a few years ago I have faced some pretty grim revelations about life. People believe they can justify literally any crime against someone by calling them a peasant and they will use violence or threats of violence to prevent "a peasant" from enjoying things that they have access to and can afford like cheetos, snickers, hamburger helper, chalupas, popcorn chicken, all-dressed chips, barbecue hoops, etc, because "it's too good for them " or "they don't deserve it".

Same thing applies to anything at all that can be considered remotely good in life like having a gf, going to college, having a white collar job, speaking well, owning a website, hosting video game tournaments, exercising and trying to look good, etc.

Basically the aggression threshold is set extremely low because it doesn't take much at all to threaten someone's sense of superiority when they don't have much of a reason to feel superior. They literally think it's acceptable to say that someone is irish when they aren't then will get angry when that person says they aren't irish because they view it as a challenge to their ego if they aren't allowed to lie about other people and identify them as something that they view as inferior to them. They also believe they should be allowed to decide who a person marries and believe that violence or harm is justified if a person refuses to marry.

Imagine living in a world where things like highschool diplomas, walmart brand great value food, thermal hoodies, women who aren't overweight, identifying as english/scottish, movie theatres, "sit down" restaurants, condos/apartments, etc are gatekept and viewed as "for rich people" or "for your betters"

Does that sound like a world you want to live in? "Jimmy's going to go the city and go to college when he's older but you're a fucking peasant so I better not ever catch you eating spicy food or drinking rum instead of beer, if you do well in school I'll starve you" these are literally the kinds of things rural people say to their children.

What's the point of continuing to read now that I know this is what I'll learn?

Give me some good books about pessimism and how life is inherently trash. Even fictional stories are good. Precisely, is there a book that talks about the human will to strive and how it is self-detrimental per se? Also books about human desire and fatalism are good. For example books about people that have some "dreams" that are unachievable, because of causality, and their upbringing.

Anybody feel like culture is really boring at the moment? Or am I just getting old?

There is no sense of genuine rebellion or "edge", except for attacking whitey. I can't think of any "underground" / "cult" classics, or any figures in the literary world who are a little wacky and transgressive like Chuck Palahniuk arguably was in the late 90s or whatever. Houellebecq seems to fit the bill but he's like eight years old and replaying themes at the moment about how everything is fucked and the western world is over.

Am I missing out on anything?

Reading John Dolan's 'Pleasant Hell' at the moment.