/lit/ - Literature

yes, it's common

such as the loneliest moments felt in life can be those right after joy or companionship, the sudden juxtaposition shift from fulfillment to void heightens the feeling of emptiness

No, I can't say that I did feel that empty after completing the book. Mostly because I didn't feel that attached to the characters. They were vacuous and superficial as was intended.

The story and characters were there to make a point and the point was made. Good book nevertheless.

>>3258952
Happens after every good book. You lift?

>>3258952
I usually don't feel that way, but Great Gatsby definitely left an impression behind. Mostly because of the ending I think. That book had one the greatest last pages in the history of literature.

>>3258972
Yes, less than 2 years off and on, about 6 months on this time.
I've always had this idea of being well balanced, but wasn't able to really apply it earlier in my life. (I'm 21 now).

Yeah. Everyone gets that. It starts to dissapear when you sart reading seriously.

For serious readers the great gatsby takes a day to read. You look at it in a different way than if you read casually and at a slower pace.

Still happens with really great books, or at least ones that you really connect with


Also,
>reading for plot
>caring about characters
>2012

>>3258998
I read it because it was recommended.
And it only took that long because I had work and finals and things in my schedule.

>>3259004
>And it only took that long because I had work and finals and things in my schedule.

Don't get too caught up in how long it takes to read something. Whenever someone says how long they took to read something I just tend to take it as a pissing contest (unless it's connected to the fact that they just couldn't put the book down).

Jordan was a guy.

>>3258998
What...I mean...what other reasons are there for reading?

>>3259090
Bragging rights, my boy. That's why we always mention Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow.

>>3259050
that makes the story even better . . . my dick

>>3259103
could someone explain this to me?

i saw an image with both of them on this board and thought maybe because they were books everyone read and liked.

kind of like radioheads albums on /mu/

>>3259615

infinite jest is the best read ever.

>>3259615
They're both great books. They used to be very popular here, but recently (in the past year or so) we've had an influx of anti-reading newfags who're determined to belittle anything anyone professes to enjoy. This board really is fucking terrible now.

>>3259050
WTF

>>3259632

It's curious, people here wouldn't shut up about IJ for 18 months or so. Now, you honestly don't see it mentioned much. In a general sense, Infinite Jest is the bread and butter of any literary message board. I've been on a few, and they were all obsessed with it.

Dunno about GR though. I mean, /lit/ never talked about it overly much. They discuss Pynchon's other books though, and Pynchon himself, I suppose.

>>3259695
>don't see IJ mentioned much
>/lit/ doesn't talk about Gravity's Rainbow much
shithawk
are we on the same board here
were you even in that thread about iron queens

>>3259708

No, I didn't see that thread. Neither book gets mentioned that much. I can't see a single thread on Page 0 about either, and in the past, IJ had maybe a couple of threads on Page 0 (like we needed that).

>>3259621
>>3259708

Haven't read Infinite Jest, I'll be honest, but seriously? Are you fucking kidding me?
>David Foster Wallace
> shit ton or citations and footnotes(1)
>(1) About various obscure shit (observer)
> (observer) WHO NO ONE GIVES TWO SHITS ABOUT!

The man clearly had (he killed himself, surprise....) clear mental problems and obsessive OCD. Reading "Consider The Lobster" for a freaking class was one of the most difficult and frustrating things (not because of what he wrote but how he wrote it) in my life.

And you're telling people to read Infinite Jest. No more footnotes, thank you!
>

>>3261364
>obsessive OCD

>>3261385

I'm reiterating how obsessive obsessive can be.

>>3261385
I bet he uses ATM machines

>>3261415
also
>clearly had clear
I'm illustrating that while you're complaining about someone being painful and frustrating to read, you're also making redundancies that are painful to read.

>>3261451

You mad bro? Guess I'm as good as the goodly DFW (Dat Fuck Wat?) is. Sorry I interrupted you while you were jacking off to him.

freaking /lit/ circle jacks around confusing literature like a bunch of insecure adolescent males.

Reading IJ then posting about it just to fill up their ego. But did you even understand it, or just read it so you could say you did?

Check out "Green eggs and ham". Just an example that writing neither has to be complex or eloquent to be good.

Its called fulfillment, you obsessive cont.

>>3261477
It seems that you mad.

>>3261489

I AM MAD! MAD LIKE A FOX!

I feel that sense of emptiness at the end of any story. Be it a game, film, television show or novel. You're not alone.

>>3258952

I read this book about four times a year. Every three months I spend a weekend and read it.

>>3261695

It really is the best of the books

Don't tell me you only watch every episode of a series you like only once. Same here. At least a third of the books I read per year are those I could actually quote entire chapters of.

>>3261767
I never re-watch tv episodes. I do re-read my favorite books all de damn tiiiiime.

>>3261789
Atta boy.

>>3258952
I get a feeling of emptiness when I discover something new that Iike, but slowly fills up the more time I put into it. I don't like it because I really like that empty yearning but I hate when its gone, because I always feel like its lost its quality and becomes purposefulness, a destruction of mystery, and an overall stale appearance.
The best example I can give is when I discovered minecraft while browsing around on the internet. It was amazing, a huge, unique and random open world, so vast and empty that it instantly created a desire to explore and learn. I loved it, because I was the only person I knew who knew about this game, I felt like I had my own discovery, this incredibley simple yet expansive new concept. but as they kept updating and adding new things, it changed the feeling, and as more and more people discovered it (to the point where I now don't know anyone who hasn't heard of it) it completely lost its appeal.

>>3261695
>I spend a weekend and read it.

What nigga?

I've read it a few times. After the second read, it takes me about a morning to finish this book. The prose isn't difficult and the sentence structure and language are extremely basic.

>>3261813
This is how everyone at /mu/ feels about their favorite indie band. Who cares if other people like it or not. As to Minecraft, really you just got bored with it because... it gets boring. Now you can advance to COD BO2.

>>3261815
Ya but OP is talking about feels. Let him have his feels.

>>3261813
You just summarized how I treat women and used to treat Palahniuk until a certain point, respectively. Eerie.

>>3261819
yeah that too.
I don't really have that problem with music, I love it when I find a cool new band, but I also like sharing them and talking about it with friends. maybe its because it doesn't spread as much? or because I like music a lot more than vidya gayems

>>3261822
>Palahniuk
ew

>>3261829
Yes. That's what I meant. I have nightmares of Brad Pitt punching people now.

OP here. Never thought I could make a thread and still see it 2 days later.

These were me:
>>3258987
>>3259004
>>3259615

Like this guy: >>3261825 said, I'm just talking about some feels and inquired on a book I saw posted more than once here.

At least I know I'm not the only one.

Infinite Jest is indeed /lit/'s Radiohead. I have to get a tattoo of that sentence.

>>3259103
If you're not involved in a book, you won't finish it, but if you force yourself through it and brag about having finished it, you'll make an idiot of yourself after encountering the first person who has actually read it and enjoyed it.

I guess what I'm saying is that the root of anyone's reason for reading a novel is an interest in the plot and the characters that it's comprised of.

>>3261364
From Irish's class? Man, I fucking loved Consider the Lobster.

>fiction
stopped reading right there

>>3258952

i like cross board pollination. i've made a new thread in /fit/ inviting /fit/izens to visit /lit/, as we need new blood from time to time.

thank you OP, and invite other /fit/izens to browse our board!

You need to realise your life is utterly meaningless. Only then will you be liberated from feelings of existential despair and emptiness when returning to the solitude of the psyche after these dalliances in escapism, which are of course merely exercises in distraction precipitated by your need to stave off the anxiety that your life is of no importance; an anxiety evidenced further by your compulsive need to remain physically fit, as if you can somehow lift away or outrun the colossal sense of dread that resides in the shadows of your deepest self. Look into the abyss. Embrace the void.

>>3261987
I will never be so desensitized as to let you do that, anon. That's my motherfucking promise.

>>3258952
Yes. It's horrible but it is glorious. It's sort of like losing a friend or lover. It's the muses putting you down again after having carried you along for a while.

>>3258970
Are you a sociopath?

>>3258998
>It starts to dissapear when you sart reading seriously.
You mean when you become numb and jaded. I've been reading seriously for more than ten years and I still get that feeling when I finish a great work. But then again, my idea of serious reading isn't rushing through a book a day and oversaturating myself, but reading less, slower and more attentively.

>>3262535
Seriously, proper heavy lifting is such a meditative experience, an oasis in the middle of a day filled with activities that are unnatural for human beings, activities that make us lose connection with the Earth. The Iron is a conduit with which one can reconnect with the primal, pure human condition of struggle against the earth. A struggle that is not an unrewarding battle, for the Earth rewards those who prove themselves to be worthy of her rewards. The Iron, which came from the Earth, is her emissary to us lost in the world of plastic and bureaucracy where the reward for work is an empty trophy with a "made in china"-sticker on it. The rewards of Mother Earth, granted to us by the Iron, are at first glance only temporary and fleeting that old age withers. However, the moment when a bar weighing 300 pounds is attempting to crush you, when you against all the odds that you have given yourself prove yourself to be worthy of Earth's rewards, you gain something that your soul will carry with it for all eternity, a feeling of connection with the One True Purpose Of The Universe that will never fade.

TL;DR lift weights

Also OP, browse less /fit/, coming from someone who visited the place every day for 2 years.

>>3262511

/fit/ is a terrible board of meme spouting and feels. They know extremely little about actually being /fit/

>>3262589
Well, anything after oatz'n'squatz is only novelty anyways. But seriously, I've been lifting for 5 years now and haven't been to /fit/ more than maybe three or four times, let alone posted. Who gives a damn.

>>3262545
>asking people if they're sociopaths
Go back to suburban America.

You know you've read a good book when you have that feeling. If you are ever happy that a book ended, you know it was bad.

I just finished Dune.

I'm so happy it's over.

>>3261725
I thought I was the only one here who thought so :'D

Yes it happens. And the feeling also gets more pleasurable to deal with as you learn closure.

I don't know guys, /fit/ is one of the better boards imho, just full of really insecure people. Im

>>3262545
>Are you a sociopath?

>using words you don't know the meaning of

But OP, Nick was gay

>>3264478

"Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms. Her wan, scornful mouth smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face."

>>3264478
He was bisexual but it was before the term existed. There's a scene after the party at Tom's that is somewhat overtly a homosexual experience with another guest at the party.

But, it's a representation of the hedonism of that time period. It wasn't "gay" it was pleasure-seeking, experiencing.

>>3264711
>overtly a homosexual experience
No, it's clearly not.
Nick and the guy leave the party which had ended rather abruptly with Tom breaking Mrs.Wilson's nose.
What do drunk people do after leaving parties prematurely? They go in search of more drink, to Mr.Mckee's apartment which is just downstairs.
Here's the passage in question:
"... I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up
between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.
'Beauty and the Beast ... Lonliness ... Old Grocery Horse ... Brook'n Bridge ...'
Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level
of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning Tribune,
and waiting for the four o'clock train.

>>3264749
I was intentionally hyperbolic, though I'll stand by my analysis.

He also wiped a piece of lather from Mr Mckee's mouth while he slept before leaving.