/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22010227]

If we are born without any instruction manual for life and conditioned entirely by arbitrary circumstances, how can we possibly figure any of this shit out? I'm in a constant state of confusion, my brain is malfunctioning as I just can't comprehend my situation and so simply procrastinate all the time..

Books for this feel?

[Anonymous No.22010236]

I don’t know, man. I don’t think there are any books that talk about this. I’m also at a point in my life where I’m looking desperately for an “answer” or like a “next step” but I’ve so far come up empty handed. Modern life feels like being in a rat trap, but nobody talks about this.

[Anonymous No.22010237]

I'm sorry you're in pain.

[Anonymous No.22010244]

>>22010227
>If we are born without any instruction manual for life and conditioned entirely by arbitrary circumstances, how can we possibly figure any of this shit out? I'm in a constant state of confusion, my brain is malfunctioning as I just can't comprehend my situation and so simply procrastinate all the time..
>>>/adv/

>Books for this feel?
the book of disquite

[Anonymous No.22010248]

>>22010236 -> >>22010244

[Anonymous No.22010258]

>>22010227
I'm sorry man, I'm in shambles myself. fuck why man why

[Anonymous No.22010268]

it really is quite confusing. i hope there is a rational purpose to all of this

[Anonymous No.22010274]

Information overload.

[Anonymous No.22010279]

>>22010268
>i hope there is a rational purpose to all of this
idk man, it's very unlikely. despite all the debates about god and atheism and all that bullshit, there is no certainty. I just want a reason, just one

[Anonymous No.22010296]

>>22010244
How is the Book of Disquiet about this topic?

[Anonymous No.22010297]

>>22010236

I don't like being misanthropic but I look at most people these days and can't believe they exist as they do. I lose all faith in any God when I see a low class npc stuffing their face or shouting at their awful kids.

[Anonymous No.22010307]

>>22010279
i am at the point where i am so confused that i don't even know if.. fuck i don't have the energy to type yet more thought sludge shit right now.
it's embarrassing for me to feel this way, i'll tell you this

[Anonymous No.22010316]

>>22010268
Yeah. It’s a problem. At the same time, it does seem like in the past people did have more viable paths for their time. One thing I’ve noticed is how you’re warned off of everything now. Don’t join the military because you’ll ruin your body and not get your benefits. Don’t study humanities because you won’t get a job. Don’t go to law school because it’s too expensive. Don’t get a graduate degree because there are no faculty positions. We’re feeling like there’s nothing we actually can do besides precisely those things that we would rather not do at all.

[Anonymous No.22010324]

>>22010227
>Books for this feel?
You have to research what is relevant. What happens when we die and what is the meaning of life? And the answer to both are found in NDEs.

>b-b-but NDEs are dreams or hallucinations somehow
Already explicitly refuted in the literature you likely have not read on NDEs. And while the Bible and the Qu'ran convinces few people who do not already believe, the book in pic related is known to convince even hardened skeptics that there is an afterlife.

Here is a very persuasive argument for why NDEs are real:

https://youtu.be/U00ibBGZp7o

It emphasizes that NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and when people go deep into the NDE, they all become convinced. As this article points out:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist

>"Among those with the deepest experiences 100 percent came away agreeing with the statement, "An afterlife definitely exists"."

Since NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and they are all convinced, then 100% of the population become convinced that there is an afterlife when they have a sufficiently deep NDE themselves. When you dream and wake up, you instantly realize that life is more real than your dreams. When you have an NDE, the same thing is happening, but on a higher level, as you immediately realize that life is the deep dream and the NDE world is the undeniably real world by comparison.

Or as one person quoted in pic related summarized their NDE:

>"As my soul left my body, I found myself floating in a swirling ocean of multi-colored light. At the end, I could see and feel an even brighter light pulling me toward it, and as it shined on me, I felt indescribable happiness. I remembered everything about eternity - knowing, that we had always existed, and that all of us are family. Then old friends and loved ones surrounded me, and I knew without a doubt I was home, and that I was so loved."

Needless to say, even ultraskeptical neuroscientists are convinced by really deep NDEs.

[Anonymous No.22010327]

>>22010227
>>22010324
So read NDE accounts and basically all you can about NDEs. Books, YouTube-videos, articles, everything. They will make you realize that there is an afterlife, that there is meaning to life, and that NDErs say that the primary purpose here is to learn to love everyone and everything, no matter what. That it does not matter so much what kind of things we do, but whether we do them with no strings attached, and summon that kindness, love, and compassion on the inside of our own minds as we do it. So the meaning of life then, according to NDErs, is the small things. Whether it is helping someone with their homework, cooking dinner for our family, cleaning the bathroom, or picking up trash from the ground. Whatever it is, if we do it with love, then that is so huge on the other side, it is amazingly huge. So life is like a game where the goal is to summon as much kindness, love, compassion, and generosity as we possibly can squeeze out of our intentions. Which admittedly is definitely easier said than done!

You are playing life on a higher difficulty anon. We are here to learn to shine with love and kindness _in a world where it is undeniably hard to do so_! So are you up for the challenge? You can do it anon. Show us you can do it.

So sure, suicide shoots you directly to heaven and infinite bliss. But at the same time, you were there when choosing to come here. Suicide is therefore like turning off the Silent Hill video game and going out in the sun and playing with your friends. Which is totally fine! But it's not beating and 100%-ing the game, which is to live until death takes you, and being kind and loving all the time along the way.

So choosing to come here is like choosing to go to Harvard. It is not easy, and you have to be somebody to even get to come here. As NDErs say, everybody on Earth is a star on the other side for having the courage and endurance to come to this nightmare hellhole.

[Anonymous No.22010337]

Wtf is this gloomy ass thread lmao you guys are all fucking depressed for no reason. Non-depressed people don't feel bad about the world having no meaning or whatever, they just go about their lives trying to make the most of it. You guys should really seek therapy and take care of yourselves. That's no way of being in the world, asking "but why", "there has to be a good reason for this" all the time. Be a raging fire against the absurd, exalt your force of will against unflinching odds, rage against the dying of the light, ride the tiger, etc etc etc

LOOK ALIVE YOU FUCKING PUSILLANIMOUS KEKS
LOOK ALIVE AND SCREAM AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Anonymous No.22010342]

>>22010327
based. Love is everything, let your love shine like a thousand suns upon this scorched earth, and let life burn, rise from its ashes and burn again from sheer love a million times over. Love wins, love is death, death is God and God is love
fuck you all I love you to bits LETS GOOOOOOO

[Anonymous No.22010358]

>>22010316
i've noticed that too. all the paths have humongous "wrong way" signs next to them. makes me wish i could stay here forever. should i stay or should i go. song.

[Anonymous No.22010367]

>>22010337
> Be a raging fire against the absurd, exalt your force of will against unflinching odds, rage against the dying of the light, ride the tiger, etc etc etc
These are all just platitudes though. None of them give practical advice for navigating modern life.

[Anonymous No.22010371]

>>22010358
I tend to think you should go, you should always go. That’s because you can’t let yourself stagnate. I was one of those people that got really disenchanted with academia and chose to abandon graduate studies. A few years later, I sort of regret that. I realize that I would’ve regretted doing it had I done it, but I still think it’s better to move forward than to stay out, at least while you’re young. But it’s hard for me to say that in full confidence. It’s just how I feel right now. It might be better to stay where you are sometimes.

[Anonymous No.22010373]

>>22010327
For a Christian, suicide can’t shoot you to heaven.

[Anonymous No.22010375]

>>22010367
I know anon it's just a mindset you end up developing when putting enough effort into a healthy lifestyle. You have to practice everyday until you find your own balance. I struggled over the years to implement good habits in my daily routine, walking a lot everyday, exercising, drinking green tea, taking magnesium and vitamins, eating a lot of fiber, praying etc.

I know it sounds gay and boring but if you do enough things that are good for your mind and body, you will end up feeling good. It's not rocket science. Maybe this modern world is a really bad place to find solace and self-actualization but you can still take steps to reduce your misery and eventually enjoy life in the long term. I believe in you anon.

[Anonymous No.22010389]

>>22010307

>fuck i don't have the energy to type yet more thought sludge shit right now

I'm the same. Every day I feel like I want to write endlessly about all the shit in my head yet I can't arrange my thoughts enough to even begin to put into words how I feel. Guess its just the hallmark of a midwit plagued with existential angst and a ruined dopamine system. Right now, hedonism seems as logical an answer as anything.

[Anonymous No.22010397]

>>22010227
We don't. The lucky ones just kick us because they have the ability to do so without retaliation, though chance is all that has determined our respective positions.

Think: why would anyone confess that their happy state is due to any influence but their own merits and abilities? Any who did so would immediately be thought less of, lowering their position in their own strata's hierarchy, quickly supplanted by one knowledgeable enough to, even if he has similar thoughts, veil them and persist in the wretched pretense.

Damn life sucks. I feel really shitty today. How exactly does one elect to kill oneself TODAY? I.E. right now, or at least in some hours time, rather that just accepting the intellectual case for the justification of a later suicide? I want to die this very second—what is the typical process whereby I can actualise this desire? I want to hang myself but lack the rope: do I buy it ahead of time? Doesn't that squander the immediacy? Then I utilise two separate moments of immediate annihilophilia to manage the job; the first for the rope and the second the act. But I'm still where I was before: I have the tools but not the will to START. How do I start? How do I stand up out of my chair and resolutely go forth to carry out the preliminary tasks necessary to complete the purpose?

Difficulties! I wish those meme 'kill me Pete' (the name of my mother's lover whilst I was a child, I always recall) worked; how simple life would be if we could will not to wake!

[Anonymous No.22010405]

>>22010237
Not OP, but I believe sentiments like this are most earnest, though usually disregarded due to the ease in which they're given.

"I'm not a pessimist, I'm sad." True emotion doesn't come in purple prose, we just have to write it as such because our true emotions can't be effectually conveyed through language, but only through physical interaction—debarred to some by disposition and all by the nature of modern social communication.

[Anonymous No.22010407]

>>22010371
>>22010389
it is always surreal to me when people reply to my posts. i typed shit, someone read it, then they responded with something that sounds like a thing i might say. it's a strange feeling

[Anonymous No.22010412]

>>22010268
I don't think there is, old boy. It kind of sucks. I honestly don't think any kind of heaven, no matter how perfect, could justify this shitty and worthless suffering. I'm so bloody comfortless. I was walking by a tree in blossom the other day and had my cheek caressed by its white flowers: I immediately teared up because it felt like the hand of a lover (not that I'd know how that felt). Grim! If only there was some small oasis of genuine peace in the world, however slight.

[Anonymous No.22010422]

>>22010412
Godspeed anon, this is a thing of beauty you shared with your own words and it's something. I too suffer from solitude but one day maybe we will find fulfilment, who knows. Thank you and good luck, I really wish you the best.

[Anonymous No.22010425]

>>22010407
Me too. I recall the same feeling when I inspire some action. I feel like a ghost most of the time, entirely impotent and unworthy of making a single blade of grass tremble, so when something actually happens, someone does something because I've told them to... I don't know; It's very odd. I think this apathetic feeling of helplessness is one of the primary drivers of my misery. It's exacerbated by the nature of modernity, where everything's so streamlined and efficient (comparatively lmao) that there isn't the wiggle room for inefficiencies or failings. You can't just strike out alone into a new city confident that there will be a job/house/lover or whatever anymore. Everything's so competitive and arbitraged up that there's no leeway whatsoever. I suppose it's not a modern phenomenon: suddenly thought of the death of Conrad's tramp steamers, or worse, tramp cutters, condemned to death by modern bulk shipping.

The worst is that there's method in this madness: you're paralysed by apathy, yes, but this doesn't matter! They don't actually even need you or your labour. Your life is quite superfluous, in a way that the average ww2 soldier's simply wasn't. 70 percent or so of people just exist because... they do, and they haven't ceased to; they don't actually contribute anything positive to the world, but have merely inveigled themselves with average social skills into some pointless sinecure that only exists to waste the time of people like them, preventing them from doing anything that actually might impede those few productives who actually do do something.

[Anonymous No.22010426]

>>22010407

What a time to be alive. But then things have always been awful. If we'd been born 100 years earlier we could have lived as bohemians in Paris and perhaps had a genuine shot at a self-actualised, creative life. But the odds are that instead we'd have been eviscerated in a trench somewhere during WW1 or working in a fucking mine.

There are no answers I guess. It is always comforting when you realise others have the same kind of mental anguish. Not surprising certain types of men gravitate to a place like 4chan in the first place.

[Anonymous No.22010427]

>>22010412
i like the way your post is written. maybe you could get some solace from having found yourself in possession of a proficiency in communication. it is surely very fun to mess around with.
i understand, though. ivan put it best in TBK

[Anonymous No.22010430]

Two comforts in life:
1. That others have, are and will suffer as we do;
2. That each day is one closer to our deaths.

In all my life, however brief and uninteresting, these are the sole consolations I've gleaned from an unpleasant and discomforted existence.

[Anonymous No.22010440]

>>22010375
But don’t you think “healthy lifestyle” and “modern life” are almost antithetical concepts? You mentioned non-depressed people who go about their lives. Who are you talking about exactly? I know highly successful bankers, lawyers, etc. that are very depressed and quite obviously depressed. They’re just able to make it work. If you’re referring to the Andrew Tates and Joe Rogans of the world, it’s not surprising to know they’re not depressed. But for everyone else, it sort of seems like you’re forced into a life that is necessarily not “healthy”.

[Anonymous No.22010441]

>>22010324

Its just an altered state of consciousness and lack of oxygen.

[Anonymous No.22010446]

>>22010412
There are people who can have that freedom and peace everyday. I imagine they’re very wealthy.

[Anonymous No.22010450]

this thread is feels abnormally synchronized with my inner thoughts/feelings. i never see people expressing empathy openly and acknowledging suffering in this way. i am happy to see it

[Anonymous No.22010466]

>>22010440
Yeah I agree. I guess I was referring to either people who genuinely don't know or don't care (who some might call "NPCs") and people who realize that life is shit but still take steps to feel good in the present moment regardless.

I think that although conditions are dire, you still have a responsibility to be the best person you can, to dispense love towards yourself and others. As I already mentioned there are plenty of ways to make it happen, it mostly depends on who you are. A healthy lifestyle might be compromised to some degree because of our modern life conditions but you still owe yourself to try regardless. A spiritual quest, getting to know yourself, trying to let go of frustration and guilt, it takes time but it's worth it. Historically, some people have been able to find true happiness even in desperate situations. I think we should at least try and be like them.

[Anonymous No.22010480]

>>22010425
I feel that way when I talk to people in real life. It can be shocking to transition from the idea of the person to the actual person. It feels like talking to a celebrity or something. Their name/image—which I have become acclimated to addressing in the privacy of my thoughts—suddenly appears before me, confronting me with an expectant gaze. Something about their casual ease of communication is intimidating... it's a profound ability, speaking, that everyone has become acclimated to. They are like gods, and I am somehow among them. Some know me by name

[Anonymous No.22010482]

>>22010466
You’re right, but I also sometimes feel as if there’s an age where it becomes increasingly difficult to be hopeful. I’ve felt in most of my life this intense desire to be successful and powerful somehow within it and simultaneously this immense distaste for the method required. Literature is the only thing I’ve ever found that really feels like it overcomes all of it, but that alone feels inadequate.

[Anonymous No.22010491]

>>22010425

What puzzles me is how obsessed people can become with hobbies etc to the point it becomes their entire personality. Lots of things interest me but I can never get that passionate about anything or stay interested long term. Social media has made it worse because now people can get a following posting about their hobbies which just fuels their obsession further.

Maybe I just lack discipline or I'm attention deficit or something. I just the idea of defining myself by some random thing I like or my job.

[Anonymous No.22010501]

I feel like work has been a big source of angst for me. I’ve not been able to find work that I feel comfortable in. More and more, I feel like it’s so important to discover your thing early.

[Anonymous No.22010522]

>>22010501

Absolutely. Society rewards neurotypicals who figure shit out early and commit to the system or are otherwise sociopathic or aspie enough to grind it out happily without any concern for self-realisation. To be 30 something and still talking about your 'potential' is pretty fucking sad and another symptom of the times we live.

Wageslave boomers had well paid, cushy jobs and at least had families, homes and financial freedom to compensate for the drudgery. The more artistic ones could genuinely compete in creative industries if they simply developed the skills required. We have no such luxuries.

[Anonymous No.22010537]

>>22010522
It’s not only them though. Imagine you want to be a writer, which seems to me a feasible way to escape all of this shit that’s been discussed here. The earlier you start working toward that, the better off you are. It might be required to start early actually.

[Anonymous No.22011183]

>>22010537

Same applies to everything that requires genuine talent. You can be 30+ and still grind away to become an entry level codemonkey or something. But if you want to write a good novel, yeah, you need to have been doing it for a good few years and also read a shit ton.