/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12154782]

How "seriously" should one take life, /lit/?

You look at someone like Beethoven and it's like damn this guy is fucking serious

Is life really conducive to that kind of seriousness?

Tell me your thoughts, /lit/

[Anonymous No.12154817]

>>12154782
What could possibly be more serious than your own existence? If you don't take yourself seriously notting else can be worthy either

[Anonymous No.12154824]

Thomas Aquinas was one of the most serious people who ever lived, but even he constantly refers to a sense of the ridiculous as being one of the most essential human traits. So don't take life too seriously, for tomorrow you too could be involved in a freak donkey accident.

[Anonymous No.12154838]

>>12154782
Seriousness isn’t incompatible with having a very well-developed sense of humor.

[Anonymous No.12154856]

>>12154782
True, I guess one sense of what I mean is, How much should one strive to become more than yourself, how conducive is our existence to that? What the deal is?

[Anonymous No.12154865]

>>12154817
My feeling is, the best way to live is to go with the flow, in the Alan Watts style

Yet this in many ways involves a giving in to the way other people are

High "seriousness" in the style of etc Milton or something is... What, exactly?

[Anonymous No.12154883]

>>12154824
The sense of the ridiculous... How does one reconcile with the ridiculous etc? Do you think it takes religion?

[Anonymous No.12154897]

>>12154883
>How does one reconcile with the ridiculous etc
How do you mean? Being ridiculous is part of being human and will never go away. Aquinas says its something unique to humans, as God cannot find himself ridiculous (because he's not) and animals cant because they lack the ability

[Anonymous No.12154908]

>>12154856
No one can ever be more than themselves. The question is always can you transform and should you which is both an empirical and metaphysical question.

>>12154865
Eastern vs. Western thougth