/lit/ - Literature

Have you actually tried?

Write about that. That's powerful.

>>18567726
I'm sure Gilgamesh hated the modern world, also.

Babby's first crisis.

What really keeps me wide awake at night is the loss of tradition. I am probably more "well off" than most people here as I retired from waging in my 20s.

There is still this extreme existential hollowness. There is no tradition in the West, or elsewhere for that matter. Evola says in the Ride the Tiger that all sorts of initiation and true 'wisdom' in the last stages of Kali-Yuga are comparable to biofluoresence that some bacteria and other pathological organisms may produce while feasting upon a dying corpse.

>>18567766
I wouldn't even know how.

>>18567726
>I hate the modern world
It’s weird to phrase it that way, considering you’ve never lived in anything but the modern world. Ultimately it sounds like you just hate life, so im sorry, maybe you should see a therapist?

>>18567825
Okay, let's say 2014 onwards.
I've seen one. He was an NPC who I was too complex for.

>>18567835
Oh hey, I shouldn’t have deleted my post
Then see an actual shrink and get some adderall or other amphetamine derivative. You need to get up and move and force yourself to do shit you don’t really like, you’ll feel better after even if it doesn’t make sense now

>>18567726
It does suck a lot, the 24/7 connectivity is not good for mankind. It's destroying our psyche's and turning us into soulless husks.

>>18567835
>>18567866
Ignore any moron trying to sell you doped up meth pills. Just go lift weighs anon. It changed my life considerably.

>>18567875
Honestly if just lifting works then forego medication, but this is something you could start doing in forty five minutes if you really wanted. I’m guess I’m assuming OP is not a good self motivator at this point.

>>18567726
How is this related to /lit/ you filthy nihilist.

Write about the grayness until it's not anymore.

>>18567885
Pills don't make you motivated, they give you illusions by making you high. You need to build something solid, and lifting is supremely EZ and a great way to do that. It also makes you look good too as an added bonus.

>>18567726
You're just a coward. Now is the age of true art and heroism.

>>18567893
Amphetamines gives you an abundance of energy, and most people find it focuses their mind as well. Further, a lot of people have success by just doing it for a month or so until they get on track.
Lifting is definitely not easy. Making and committing to a routine is incredibly difficult, especially for a depressed person, but really, good for you.

>>18567726
I struggle with it a little too, anon. I am worried about how art/literature will survive if AI takes over the production of it. Why would humans bother if an AI can write 100 novels in an instant, all far better than what one can produce? It reminds me of chess players. Why do they bother if a computer could easily bet them?

>>18567903
>relying on external substance to lift you up
That's how addiction starts and probably explains the prolific use of heroin and fentanyl in Americans.

>>18567875
I lift most mornings. I enjoy it, but I can't do it all day. My day has pretty much lost it's momentum by early afternoon.
>>18567899
>Now is the age of true art and heroism.
Genuinely curious to know why you think so anon.

>>18567726
the final and true blackpill is that it’s not just the modern age, everything was always shit, and will continue to be until the end of time.

>>18567913
Actually fentanyl is a narcotic, it’s a painkiller. Amphetamines, while potentially addictive, are not prescribed for the same thing to the same people.
Not really interested in repeating myself desu, lift if it helps, or don’t, idc.

>>18567933
What were things shit relative to if they were always that way?
To even make my life a little less noticeably shit would be a victory for me.

>>18567726
Me too, anon. That's why I first started reading philosophy and literature. Then I received a purpose for life, and actually began to enjoy it. Don't give up, pick up a comfy book!

>>18567907
The AI issue is a literal subversion and an attempt to deflect from the real issue. As if the problem is some technological boogeyman that doesn't even exist in that horrendous imagined form yet.
The problem at least for the time being is what technology does to the human psyche itself, how it can alter culture, our perception of beauty, of what is good, noble and the like.
We don't have to pretend to fear what kind of novels an AI could write, but whether humans will be able to write a novel worth a shit in the Tech Age.

>>18567972
Why not tell us the purpose you found?

>>18567726
Read moby dick

>>18568031
I found Jesus.

>>18568072
Where was he hiding?

>>18567807
But how are you going to say you can’t if you haven’t even tried yet?

>>18568044
I already did in college.

>>18567726

Drink a glass of cool water.

Take a shower and wash your hair. Brush your teeth. Run a load of laundry, and clear up the sink while the machine is running.

Say hi to your friends and see what's up for this weekend. 4th of July is coming up, maybe catch some fireworks or help out on the grill.

Take care of yourself bro.

>>18567953
people have been mourning “the good old days” since the dawn of civilization. but these days did not exist. you will always feel empty, like something is missing. that’s just part of the human condition.

>>18567899
*hedonism

>>18567726
lol gay

>>18567726
You don't hate the internet. You don't hate people. You don't hate life.

You hate the internet under capitalism. You hate people as they are under capitalism. You hate life under capitalism.

>>18568233

Man not to be an edgelord but there might be something to this. I'm thinking about the rise of apocalyptic/dystopian fiction in recent years -- isn't it crazy that we'd rather imagine the world as we know it ENDING than it being replaced with a better and more sustainable system? Lol.

>>18568233
You really think misanthropy would cease existing in Marxtopia huh

>>18568134
Except things are getting objectively worse every year

Ok, so this is the first line of my novel. Is it any good?

When Thibaut Malouf awoke from horny dreams, he found his penis had turned into a vagina - and he had gotten breasts, too.

>>18568077
right inside my heart

>>18568233
Thanks, GPT-3 bot trained on a retarded zoomer's twitter timeline.

>>18568256
read capitalist realism by mark fisher

>>18568256
Let me guess, that sustainable system is communism?

>>18568608
Kek

>>18567726
Get off the internet, if necessary increase solitude (or instead socialize with people in person only) then fuel your inspiration with loathing for the internet.

The world has always been grey, I don't think the age has anything to do with it, regardless of how retarded things might be.

>>18568334
not him but hasn't that happened over and over again in society since time immemorial, though? Eventually some shit happens that resets the situation so things can get worse again every year.

>>18567992
>don't plan for an inevitability mere decades away

>>18567907
people still play chess. And still make manual noodles , smith katanas like in the shogunate, or play instruments.

>>18567992
literature is kinda dead right now, the last good novel was 2666. And that was some time ago.


>>18568072
sometimes I hope apocalypses is near and God comes to bring some order.

I feel this way too but I still hate myself in particular more than I hate the world around me. If I weren’t such a miserable failure, I’d at least make the best of what it is.

>>18567726
What you people fail to realize is that life has always been shit. People always look at the past or the future as better than the present, when in reality its all shit. If you want to be reliably happy and fufilled, then you'll have to wait for the future when machines will automatically fill your brain with happiness hormones.

>>18568964
I think that’s true for happiness but not fulfillment. Nobody in history wasted away their lives like we do or had deep a sense of dissatisfaction as we do. That seems to be something that gets worse with modernity.

>>18569040
This

>>18569040
Way I see it, way more people are living lives in relative luxury now. Meaning more people get to feel a sense of dissatisfaction, rather than just being busy slaving away to survive. I don't think modernity is the problem, but people generally can't handle boredom of any kind and it just shows more now.

>>18569109
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/slaves-time-human-history-article-1.3506975

>>18567726
I'm the opposite of you, OP. I feel inspiration and still cling foolishly to hope and moral ideals, but I don't do anything because I'm a lazy, neurotic, self defeating piece of shit and I hate myself almost more than anything else.

>>18568256
Imagine imagining that the 'sustainable system' is communism of all things, fucking lol

>>18569109
You're not allowed to do anything except consoom whenever you are not wageslaving.

>>18569118
Read between the lines, I didn't mean actual slavery. I meant the average man was busier with their crafts and overall less educated than we are. Happiness and fulfilment wouldn't be questions that ailed his mind.

>>18569144
Isn't that a problem of luxury, though?
I'm with you on the idea that the consuming mentality is detrimental to us, though.

>>18568431
wholesome

>>18569109
It depends on how you define luxury but either way, luxury doesn’t imply meaning, purpose, or fulfillment, or even happiness. Even if what you say is true, is that luxury not a feature of modernity? It is obviously. It’s not true to say that’s it merely a symptom of boredom. I mean, we’ve undermined basically every traditional striving that might have given someone at least the sense of a purpose in their lives along the way. They fundamentally believe their lives are worthless and that’s not merely a symptom of boredom.

>>18569040
Different generations have different problems. We have traded away old problems for the new ones. People in the past yearned to be here, thinking that this would make them happy. Its all oversimplification, no age is good. I prefer living in modern comfort to having no choice other than to work my fingers to the bone in order to survive. Right now, you have the freedom to find meaning in life. If you wish to larp as a medieval peasant or a person from 200 years ago, there are places and communities where you can go ahead and do just that. Where there's a will there's a way. Most people just can't utilize the freedom they have been given and then they blame current age, as if the problems from the years before are that much preferable to the problems now.

>>18569244
I hadn't quite thought of it that way. You're right, prehaps this luxury is a feature of modernity. I'm still not quite on board with pinning the sense of dissatisfaction on just that, though. The "good old days" thing is often misguided and only makes you feel stuck in your nostalgia. This luxury is also a good thing, however. Never before did we have so much info readily available to anyone, which at least is worth something, even if it doesn't solve any issues.

>>18569270
>People in the past yearned to be here, thinking that this would make them happy.
No, I think that’s the thing. I don’t think they did. I think some people yearned to reach a vague notion of what here would’ve been but people generally did not yearn for that and wouldn’t even know how to yearn for that. Hence the feeling among people that’s like “Actually, no I didn’t agree to trade anything. I inherited this mess.” You know a lot of what people envision about the past or this or that life and lifestyle is pretty much mere imagination and not reality. You can’t actually prefer living now over then because you fundamentally lack the reference point. It’s really hard to ask someone how they feel about the fact they probably never actually don’t hear traffic or don’t see the stars most nights or what it feels like to live a life where you work the field with your family because the question is nonsensical to them. The only things you can really do is be honest about yourself and what you see around you and what I see is a pretty profound sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction, which doesn’t seem to be contained to the same degree in any reading of recorded history that I’ve ever seen, and to go merely based of gut feeling, that same gut feeling that makes you feel good when you split wood and see a bonfire but bad when you’ve spent all night in front of 4channel.

>>18569040
I hate how so many people on this board like to view living in a past they never lived in with rose tinted glasses.

For 99% or more people throughout human history their lives were made up mostly of boring routine and tedium pierced occasionally by a notable event or exciting moment. Sure maybe the fact that the majority of people did some type of physical labor meant they had less time to think and fewer existential crises but that doesn't mean they weren't "wasting away" in the same way modern people are.

>>18569326
I’m not pinning it on that. What I’m saying is that luxury that you brought up is still a characteristic of modernity and as such, whatever effects it has would be effects caused by modernity in a sense. But these are all just rhetorical things and I think you know that. Like how you say “this is good because we have information”. Well why is that good? The reality is you don’t actually know it you ask enough questions. You lack the reference point to actually say whether this or that is better and so you choose one on faith and feeling but that’s really all it is. So who’s to say your faith and feeling is any different from the anti-modern’s faith and feeling?

>>18569360
>For 99% or more people throughout human history their lives were made up mostly of boring routine and tedium pierced occasionally by a notable event or exciting moment.
And? How is now any different? You are the one here who is bizarrely equating the past universally with mere physical labor, but that’s equally as dumb as saying living in 2021 is characterized universally as merely doing mental labor. It’s obviously not true.

was pol right about the 1950s?

>>18569373
>How is now any different?
Well, most people in the developed world have generally far better living standards and access to education and resources than they did in the past so there's that.

But the point I was trying to make is that the way people lived in the past vs now is not entirely different at the most fundamental level.

>>18569345
> pretty profound sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction
I haven't seen any evidence of disappointment other than from the screeching autists on this website. Wherever else I look, the people seem satisfied with their lot. I think your perspective is being skewed by the fact that an exceptionally loud yet tiny minority is now able to post whatever they feel like on this website.

>>18569345
I understand that but modern conveniences (and not only the technological ones) overpower whatever emptiness people are feeling. Reality is just shit and that's just how it is. Its all just trading problems. I view freedom, access to plenty food and water, sewage treatment, the current justice system, social benefits, tolerance, access to information and healthcare among other benefits the current age has brought to the fantastical idyllic idea of the past. The current age has problems, some quite horrendous but that's just how it has to be (until some relatively distant future perhaps). In general, we are better of and if you know how to live then you can live under any circumstances. The degree of disappointment and dissatisfaction may be unprecedented but so is the freedom to explore how you individually wish to live.

>>18569429
But “living standards” is a not quite arbitrary but really arbitrary metric. For example, a huge factor in living standards is education. But why? Just because I’m educated doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll have a fulfilling life. It doesn’t even suggest that I’ll have a fulfilling life. It’s an endless circle of “evidence” which isn’t validated by anything other than more “evidence” like itself. So to point to that as better for some self-evident reason just doesn’t check out.

>>18569437
>Wherever else I look, the people seem satisfied with their lot.
Then you’re blind. For every data point you could come up with to say things are better now, you could come up with two to say they’re worse. You’re just selectively choosing which ones to pay attention to.

>>18569474
>I understand that but modern conveniences (and not only the technological ones) overpower whatever emptiness people are feeling.
I don’t even know what that means. If you mean to say that modern conveniences are more important and valuable to people than the emptiness (somehow) then I just think that’s obviously not true and certainly can’t be proven. I mean, take that to extreme. What could possibly be worse than an extremely healthy, extremely comfortable, extremely convenient life where not a single moment feels the least bit worth it or fulfilling? Literally nothing could be worse than that. And yet there’s no end to the examples of things which are hard and harsh but nonetheless worthwhile in life that I could point to while people universally nod their heads in agreement.

>>18569487
I'm not talking about data points, retard. I'm just making a general observation about the way that people behave in society. If people were truly dissatisfied with this society then they surely would set out to change it. I am ready for a change but I have met no one is willing to join me. Even the epic anti establishment trumpists are just an affirmation of the status quo due to the dual nature of politics - they don't like one party so they choose the other one. Very few are those who reject them both.

>>18569503
Not everyone feels empty, in fact, most don't. If you do feel empty, it is your choice, atleast to an extent. Right now, you have the freedom to choose to do basicly whatever you consider fufilling. Life is garbage in general, as I've said. People previously were just distracted, as it has been said in this thread.

>>18569566
Observation of what? Possibly data points? But anyway, people are constantly setting out to change it for one. For another, what kind of logic are you even using there? Let’s say I’m so John Doe and I’m dissatisfied. Your actual response to me would be “Well, if you’re dissatisfied why aren’t you dedicating your life to up-ending the world system?” It’s absurd. It’s something the average person can barely think about let alone throw their hat in the ring. And yet there’s no end to the examples for more capable people like in politics especially. I mean this is just such obviously narrow and short sighted thinking and logic that it’s hard to even address appropriately.

>>18569582
>Not everyone feels empty, in fact, most don't.
And what do you have to suggest that?
> Right now, you have the freedom to choose to do basicly whatever you consider fufilling.
That sounds nice but it’s simply not true.

>>18569623
>And what do you have to suggest that?
What do you have to suggest otherwise? There's clearly a growing amount of people with mental problems including depression + people who just feel empty, but you have to be delusional to think that they make up the majority or anywhere close to it, just from an observational standpoint.

>That sounds nice but it’s simply not true.
Maybe its not correct but its more true than it has ever been.

>>18568334
you completely missed the point of my posts

>>18568233
i want the life my grandad had under capitalism in a 90% white america
i dont want the life of people using glasses in the pol pot revolution

>>18569688
>What do you have to suggest otherwise?
Suicide, depression, alcohol and drug use, use of anti-depressants, mental illness. And that’s just the obvious actual data points. There’s really no end to things you could point to. I don’t know why you think it’s delusional. I think it’s pretty obvious that the large majority of people, at least in the developed world, are fundamentally dissatisfied.

How can it be more true if it’s fundamentally not true?

>>18569616
> It’s something the average person can barely think about
They can't think about it because they are ultimately not very concerned about it. Any mild dissatisfaction they feel is drowned in alcohol or sex or whatever. It certainly isn't the profound disappointment that you were painting in your original post.

>>18569737
>Suicide, depression, alcohol and drug use, use of anti-depressants, mental illness
Majority of people don't deal with any of those.

>How can it be more true if it’s fundamentally not true?
Life can't be viewed through extremist black-and-white view. There's more freedom to choose what a person wishes to do than it ever has been. Every desire does not have to be fufilled nor was back in the day. Right now, there's more room to satisfy whatever itch you have.

>>18569756
No, they can’t think about it because it’s a ridiculous expectation.

“You’re not satisfied in life? Why don’t you just totally reinvent the world if you’re so dissatisfied?”

That is retarded.

>>18569837
Why is it ridiculous? Because I expect people to follow through on their desires? Seems like you're just making excuses for mediocrity now. My fundamental position remains unchanged: If people accept what they have then they are satisfied with it.

>>18569133
>>18568728
>>18568316

You can criticize Capitalism without being a communist, morons.

>>18569503
>What could possibly be worse than an extremely healthy, extremely comfortable, extremely convenient life where not a single moment feels the least bit worth it or fulfilling? Literally nothing could be worse than that. And yet there’s no end to the examples of things which are hard and harsh but nonetheless worthwhile in life that I could point to while people universally nod their heads in agreement.
I don't see how toiling away in a field all day or dying in some retard king's war is better.
That said I see your point about striving. People need to have something personally meaningful to strive towards to keep going. And if your entire life is just complete ease, it will feel empty. But the converse is equally true. Do you think a slave working all day only to get up again the next to do the same would feel a sense of meaning from their life?

>>18568134
Not true. America as a country is definitely fucked. I can tell because I often travel between Europe and the US. The US is in such a miserable state, it is completely running on fumes. The problem is that this disease is also reaching Europe. The internet has been a mistake.

>>18569886
Eh... We have a lot of problems but we're still a first world country with one of the largest economies and global presence.

>>18569876
Well he did imply that misanthropy would cease existing when Capitalism is gone, which is something only a Communist would say.

>>18567726
Stop fetishizing the modern vs. the traditional

>people wanting to 'go back to that better time'
it never existed, at least in terms of epoques. the majority of individual time has always been spent eating shit. there are only instants of bliss, pockets of tranquility. at this moment, we are sick with wealth. there are more resources than ever. the problem that still exists and has always existed in a different guise is communication. it is oversaturated and mutating too rapidly to be effectively utilised to form communion with one another authentically. find the silence again and embrace it

>>18567726
>I hate the internet. I hate people. I hate life.
I mean, that's a good start.

>>18570160
>the past is imaginary dude

>>18567726
Just wait for global warming to lead to a complete societal collapse. Within 30 years, modern society will be gone, taking the internet with it.

You just hate yourself too much to make something of yourself.

>>18567726
You have great themes right there OP. Get some discipline and write it out. You are already an artist

>>18569876
Leftypol has linked here, I came from there

The internet dehumanizes us, anon

>>18569364
Well you got me there. Prehaps my faith in it not being all that bad is misplaced, or not, who knows. However, it does constitute me to live a somewhat satisfying life as I try to figure out those things myself

>>18567726
>>18567766
>>18567807
OP is a literal coward who admits to not even trying

excuses excuses

>>18567726
Go into the woods and pick up a bunch of rocks and build a rock wall with them.
Do this every day for eight hours a day until you have a nice rock wall somewhere.
Trust me. It will make you feel better like nothing else does.

>>18567903
Do this anon, it will absolutely change your life

>>18569916
All that means is we have a lot of corporations which are exceedingly wealthy and nothing else. If you’ve lived in American cities, European cities, and Asian cities you would be able to say definitively that American society is in a state of disrepair that’s completely unparalleled in the so-called first world.

>>18569879
No, it’s not about striving and it’s not about toiling in the field. See? That’s the problem. You’re thinking along strictly modern terms as if what’s really at play here is the sort of work you do or how hard you work when that has little to do with it. People want to feel as though their lives are worth it. Whether you’re a bartender or a peasant, they want to feel like this life they live is a good thing and that there’s something better waiting for them and they don’t want to have to move at the deafening, insane pace of modernity all while having it jammed down their throats that “actually you’re just a bunch of atoms and chemicals and your life is literally worthless and pointless”. That latter bit is a fundamental feature of modernity and that did not exist as a dominant narrative at any point in human history prior to it so far as we know. The number of reasons people have to wake up in the morning is low and dwindling fast.